He told U.S. lawmakers that he had a dream, invoking the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to describe Ukraine¡¯s fight against the Russian invasion. He said to the British Parliament that his country would fight until the end, in forests and fields, a vow resonant of Winston Churchill¡¯s exhortations against Nazism. To members of the German Parliament he spoke of a new wall dividing Europe, echoing the Berlin Wall of the Cold War.
The passionate speeches, delivered remotely by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his now-ubiquitous military-issue shirt, are part of a vigorous rhetorical effort to rally international support ¡ª for arms, or aid to his country, or sanctions against Russia.
Zelenskyy, a former comedian who ran a populist campaign to become president in 2019, is no stranger to performing, and his social-media missives and speeches have transformed him into a global symbol of his country¡¯s resistance to Russian aggression.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.