“For demonstrating that courage can be as contagious as fear, for inspiring peoples and nations to unite in defense of freedom, for reminding the world of the fragility of democracy—and of peace—Volodimir Zelensky and the spirit of Ukraine are TIME’s Person of the Year 2022,” the New York magazine added.
“In the weeks after the Russian bombing began on February 24, her decision not to flee kyiv, but to stay and rally support, was pivotal. From her first 40-second Instagram post on February 25, in From the one that showed his cabinet and civil society intact and in place, to daily remote addresses before institutions like parliaments, the World Bank and the Grammy Awards, the president of Ukraine was everywhere,” the editor explained. of Time.
The “spirit of Ukraine”
on the cover of Timethe face of the Ukrainian president, with his beard several days old and his khaki clothes, the color of his troops’ uniforms, which has become his uniform since the invasion that began on February 24, appears surrounded by faces of the civil society together among sunflowers and a mass of protesters waving the country’s flags, blue and yellow.
Among them, there is the doctor “Irina Kondratova, who helped mothers give birth in the basement of a hospital during the bombings”, to the “engineer Oleg Kutkov” who helped the country maintain its network of connections, to the ” director of du kyiv Independiente, Olga Rudenko”, the cook Levgen Klopotenko, “who turned his restaurant into an emergency kitchen” or the “war surgeon, doctor David Nott”.
Who is Volodimir Zelenksy?
Landslide-elected to the Ukrainian presidency in 2019, few thought at the start of the year that this former actor and comedian would become the character of 2022. Then he was facing public unrest and the Russian invasion was just a warning of the American intelligence services.
About the ‘Person of the Year’ award
Zelenski succeeds billionaire businessman Elon Musk, head of SpaceX and Tesla, who this year bought Twitter as person of the year. In 2007 it was President Vladimir Putin who received the distinction, an end-of-year quote from Time, born in 1923.