Volodymyr Zelensky has been named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2022. The Ukrainian President, along with “the spirit of Ukraine” was awarded the honor among finalists that included Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Twitter CEO Elon Musk, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and others.
The purpose of Time’s Person of the Year is to choose “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse.”
Zelensky has played an extremely influential role in American media since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But his ability to use media as a tool for his personal success began long before that.
In 2015, Zelensky was an actor of the Ukrainian television series Servant of the People, where his character was, ironically, the President of Ukraine. After garnering a loyal following from his stint as an actor, Zelensky made the decision to turn fiction into reality, and ran to become the actual President of his country. As a candidate, he ran a campaign that sidestepped mainstream media, and instead used social media and Youtube to promote his platform.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky has continued to use social media, and more consequentially, propaganda, to support his country’s cause. In April, he was invited to deliver a speech at the Grammy Awards. In July, both he and his wife posed for a Vogue cover photoshoot. In July, he had actor Sean Penn gift him an Oscar as a “symbol of faith.”
Zelensky has been an effective influence throughout the war, and he has turned his stardom into a weapon for his country’s war efforts. But these unique strategies have come with harsh criticism, mainly by U.S. pundits. The conflict in Ukraine has not gone without wartime propaganda. Whether it be the debunked “Ghost of Kiev,” or the fable of Snake Island, Ukraine has done its fair share of spreading disinformation in an effort to promote the country’s cause.
This has caused many in the U.S. to be skeptical about the Ukrainian government. Congress has approved tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine since the war broke out. But prior to the war, Ukraine was notorious for being an incredibly corrupt country.
In 2004, the Department of Justice wrote that Ukrainian organized crime went “largely unchecked because current criminal code in Ukraine is inadequate to curb these illegal activities.” Criminals partaking in financial crimes flock to the country, including some American citizens, even relatives to prominent political figures, as outlined by the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance Majority Staff Report.
More recently, Ukrainian President Zelensky refused to take responsibility for a stray missile that hit Poland, a NATO nation, killing two individuals. He instead insisted that the attack came from Russia, whether by accident or with malicious intent. Russia’s defense ministry denies the claim, and stated that then false reporting was a “a deliberate provocation aimed at escalating the situation.”
Knowing the true cause of the explosion is incredibly crucial, given that a deliberate attack on a NATO nation would launch all member countries into conflict. Zelensky allegedly attempted to exploit that fact, in an effort to guarantee military support from other nations in his ongoing war with Russia.
“This is getting ridiculous. The Ukrainians are destroying [our] confidence in them. Nobody is blaming Ukraine and they are openly lying. This is more destructive than the missile.”
Unnamed diplomat from a NATO country — Financial Times
Zelensky’s ability to continuously manipulate the media coverage and partner with outlets that will enable him to further his agenda has been unmatched in recent years. Information warfare seems to be his expertise, and Time Magazine’s is correct, Zelensky does have significant influence and impact — regardless of how he is wielding it.
