Less than 48 hours after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he knew he had made it to the top of the enemy’s hit list.

For the Russians, he told Ukrainians in an early-morning address, he was “Target Number 1.”

Months later, Zelensky has climbed to the top of another list: Time’s Person of the Year for 2022.

“Zelensky really galvanized the world in a way we haven’t seen in decades,” Edward Felsenthal, Time’s editor in chief, said Wednesday of the wartime leader – whom he also referred to as the “spirit of Ukraine” – on NBC’s “Today” show.

The former comedian and actor, who once played Ukraine’s president on a TV show, has drawn widespread praise from Ukrainians and world leaders as he steers Kyiv through one of the deadlier conflicts in the last 200 years.

Each year, the magazine awards the title to the person it deems the most influential in the past 12 months.

(c) 2022, The Washington Post · Andrea Salcedo 

Source: Matzav