“He knows he’s in the middle of a bigger power game between superpowers and he seems to know what he’s doing. “He’s kept a unified government and not gone along with either what Russia or the US wanted,” Russ Bellant, a longtime Ukraine researcher, told The Post Thursday. Originally thought to be a puppet of the oligarch Kolomoisky, Zelensky rebranded himself as a crusader against oligarchs, just as he had evolved from being a native Russian-speaker brought up in pro-Russian eastern Ukraine into more of a nationalist. Zelensky won the presidential election in a landslide in 2019 after much of his campaign was allegedly bankrolled by one of Ukraine’s richest - and most corrupt - oligarchs, Igor Kolomoisky. To the shock of many, Zelensky, who grew up in Russian-speaking southeast Ukraine, has been not been a bad leader - even before Thursday’s invasion. 🇷🇺 has embarked on a path of evil, but 🇺🇦 is defending itself & won’t give up its freedom no matter what Moscow thinks.” “As of today, our countries are on different sides of world history. “Russia treacherously attacked our state in the morning, as Nazi Germany did in #2WW years,” Zelensky tweeted. Zelensky called for martial law and remained defiant as Russian and Belarussian forces hit Ukraine in the kind of land, air and sea invasion not seen since World War II, blocking the capital of Kyiv as residents tried to flee. “For all those who have not yet lost their conscience in Russia, it is time to go out and protest against the war with Ukraine.” “We have severed diplomatic relations with Russia,” Zelensky tweeted early Thursday from Kyiv. When addressing Ukrainians, both on TV and online, Zelensky rallied citizens with exhortations to hold the line against the Russians and fight for their country. “What are you fighting for?” he asked in the address, posted online at 2 a.m., not long after Putin outlined his reasons for attacking Ukraine. Get the latest updates in the Russia-Ukraine conflict with The Post’s live coverage. Three hours before Russian troops hit Ukraine, Zelensky took his message to the Russian people in a powerful plea to stop and question what their country was doing. Surprisingly, given his frivolous showbiz past, experts say Zelensky has more than risen to the occasion - even though his impassioned televised speeches directed at both Russians and his own countrymen before and after the onslaught did little to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military might. “The enemy has designated me as target number one, and my family as target number two.” Three hours before Russian troops hit Ukraine, Zelensky rallied his people to hold the line and fight for their country. “I am staying in the government quarters together with others,” Zelensky said. In a short video address released right after midnight Friday in Ukraine, Zelensky said the Russians “want to destroy Ukraine politically by taking down the head of state.” In a scenario that even the writers of his old show, “Servant of the People,” couldn’t have dreamed up, Zelensky is now the leader at the center of a new war in Europe and at risk of assassination as Russia launched a full-scale invasion of the country Thursday night. Zelensky, now 44, won the presidential election in a landslide in 2019 after much of his campaign was allegedly bankrolled by one of Ukraine’s richest - and most corrupt - oligarchs, Igor Kolomoisky. Less than four years ago, Volodymyr Zelensky was one of Ukraine’s most popular TV comedians, starring in a satirical TV show and performing in a troupe where he played the piano with his penis for five minutes. Ukraine bans civilians from ‘post-apocalyptic’ front-line city over constant Russian missile, rocket attacks

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Ukranian soldier plaaying piano