Showman. Vladimir Zelensky and the War in Ukraine

The President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, a former popular actor, screenwriter, and producer in the film and show business, entered politics almost by accident, winning the elections in 2019 on the wave of success from his series 'Servant of the People' and taking advantage of the public's fatigue with corruption in power and military confrontation with pro-Russian separatists in Donbas. He promised voters to bring peace and prosperity to the country, but soon faced Vladimir Putin's unwillingness to abandon his claims to interfere in the internal politics of the neighboring state, and then, in February 2022, with the full-scale military invasion of Russia into Ukraine. But the former showman was not frightened and did not flee abroad, as the Kremlin had hoped. Zelensky remained in Kyiv and led the resistance, managing to become a full-fledged leader of the warring country in just a few months.

Almost all of 2022, Simon Shuster, an American journalist of Russian descent and a correspondent for Time magazine, spent with Zelensky's team in Kyiv, enjoying unique access to the presidential complex on Bankova Street. It was there that the idea for his book arose: to tell how the head of state and his entourage experienced the first months of the full-scale war. The book includes both the iconic events of that time — the battle for Kyiv, the tragedy in Bucha, the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kharkiv region, the liberation of Kherson — as well as what preceded them or remained outside the combat reports.