Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Volodymyr Zelenskyy became Ukraine's sixth president in April 2019 after winning 73% of the vote in a landslide. A former comedian and television producer, he had no prior office before the presidency. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 he remained in Kyiv and galvanised Western support through consistent public communication. By 2026 his wartime role spans battlefield command, economic diplomacy, and bilateral security architecture, making him the central figure across every theatre of Ukraine's war and its associated arms, energy, and Gulf-security diplomacy.

Between 27 and 28 March 2026 Zelenskyy completed a three-state Gulf tour, signing 10-year security agreements with Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The tour positioned Ukraine as a counter-drone partner to Gulf States exposed to Shahed-type attacks, deploying 228 counter-drone specialists to the region. The partnerships give Kyiv strategic depth outside NATO's immediate umbrella and a revenue and intelligence channel tied to the wider regional air-defence picture.

Zelenskyy has built Ukraine into a net exporter of air-defence and drone expertise. Eleven countries have formally requested Ukrainian air-defence assistance, and his shadow drone-factory network spans roughly 10 sites abroad. In April 2026 he reopened the Druzhba pipeline as a lever to unlock the €90 billion EU loan, approved by the European Council on 23 April. He signed a €4 billion Germany-Ukraine defence package centred on GEM-T interceptors and IRIS-T launchers. On 1 June he announced a plan to open ten EU weapons-export offices, concentrated in the Baltic and Nordic states, by the end of the year. The same day, Fire Point, maker of the 3,000km Flamingo cruise missile, broke ground on a solid-rocket-fuel plant at Skrydstrup, Denmark, the first Ukrainian weapons-manufacturing facility built on NATO soil. The factory network and Gulf security deals represent strategic depth and a hedge against shifts in US political continuity.

The 24 May 2026 dual Oreshnik barrage (the most destructive single attack on Kyiv of the war) prompted Zelenskyy to write to both President Trump and Congress citing both launches and demanding urgent Patriot resupply. The letter came as Russia's Lavrov issued the first-ever formal demand for the US to evacuate diplomatic staff from Kyiv. At Istanbul Round 2 on 2 June, Zelenskyy's delegation, led by Defence Minister Umerov, secured agreement on a 1,200-for-1,200 prisoner exchange including journalists and political prisoners, and a Russian pledge to return 6,000 bodies. He rejected Russia's counter-offer of a 2-3 day partial truce as shortsighted and proposed a full 30-day Ceasefire, which Russia refused. Round 3 was proposed for 20-30 June.

Zelenskyy's Ceasefire posture is consistent with his 2026 strategy of denying Russia diplomatic symmetry while keeping the channel open: he continues to refuse the trilateral format with Putin and sends Umerov rather than attending personally. ISW data through late May shows Russia recording net territorial losses for the fourth consecutive week, strengthening his negotiating position. The 1,000-for-1,000 swap from Round 1 was completed 23-25 May, the largest single prisoner exchange of the full-scale war, giving him a domestic win as the summer front opens.

Zelenskyy escalated Ukraine's deep-strike posture through June: he confirmed on 21 June that Ukrainian drones now reach 3,000km, following a strike on the Tyumen refinery in western Siberia, and on 20 June gave Belarus a one-week Deadline to dismantle drone-relay stations aiding Russian strikes or face Ukrainian attack, the first time Kyiv has threatened a third state's territory. An Iskander strike killed three people in his home city of Kryvyi Rih on 23 June, while Trump's 15 June G7 pivot back to Ukraine saw Zelenskyy propose a direct Putin summit that Moscow again declined.

In July, Zelenskyy carried out the war's most visible shake-up of his own command. He dismissed Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov on 15 July, citing unresolved battlefield, brigade and mobilisation problems, and installed SBU officer Yevhen Khmara to perform the role pending a Verkhovna Rada confirmation vote now contested on legal grounds. Eight days later he dismissed chief of the general staff Anatoliy Hnatov and named Ihor Skybiuk in his place, the second change atop Ukraine's war command inside a fortnight. Both moves followed three consecutive days of protest in eight cities demanding Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi's removal instead, which Zelenskyy has so FAR resisted.