Simon Shuster on the ‘Showman’ Who Became Ukraine’s President

When Russia invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago, President Volodymyr Zelensky knew that the Russian military would be hard to defeat – not only because of its strength but because for years “the Kremlin had waged its war through propaganda, seeking to convince anyone who speaks the Russian language that Ukraine does not exist.” That’s according to Time Magazine senior correspondent Simon Shuster, who says that Zelensky’s former life as an entertainer made him both acutely aware of the power of persuasion and effective at winning support for Ukraine from abroad. We talk to Shuster about Zelensky’s rise from stage actor to wartime leader and how his art informed his politics. Shuster’s new book, based on years of reporting and interviews with Zelensky and his inner circle, is “The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky.”