The Fort Worth Press - In eastern Ukraine, the plight of another Volodymyr Zelensky

USD -
AED 3.673042
AFN 67.876211
ALL 92.860855
AMD 395.275219
ANG 1.798819
AOA 913.000367
ARS 1007.604063
AUD 1.534213
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.70397
BAM 1.848146
BBD 2.015308
BDT 119.272384
BGN 1.848146
BHD 0.376282
BIF 2948.830617
BMD 1
BND 1.337113
BOB 6.897236
BRL 5.97435
BSD 0.998157
BTN 84.42523
BWP 13.579967
BYN 3.26643
BYR 19600
BZD 2.011906
CAD 1.40155
CDF 2871.000362
CHF 0.880864
CLF 0.035305
CLP 974.183794
CNY 7.241704
CNH 7.24825
COP 4375.242145
CRC 507.25254
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 104.195606
CZK 23.882104
DJF 177.73683
DKK 7.051504
DOP 60.269313
DZD 133.313489
EGP 49.572407
ERN 15
ETB 126.152705
EUR 0.94525
FJD 2.26405
FKP 0.789317
GBP 0.785083
GEL 2.81504
GGP 0.789317
GHS 15.321521
GIP 0.789317
GMD 71.000355
GNF 8602.882117
GTQ 7.701394
GYD 208.825892
HKD 7.78155
HNL 25.253012
HRK 7.133259
HTG 130.829199
HUF 390.280388
IDR 15836
ILS 3.634904
IMP 0.789317
INR 84.564504
IQD 1307.536026
IRR 42087.503816
ISK 137.380386
JEP 0.789317
JMD 157.259627
JOD 0.709104
JPY 149.76504
KES 129.50626
KGS 86.803799
KHR 4022.678951
KMF 466.950384
KPW 899.999621
KRW 1395.515039
KWD 0.30742
KYD 0.831751
KZT 515.728798
LAK 21905.976849
LBP 89381.809591
LKR 290.101583
LRD 179.163714
LSL 18.000472
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.884479
MAD 9.985731
MDL 18.266005
MGA 4682.258446
MKD 58.143161
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3397.999946
MOP 8.002362
MRU 39.814789
MUR 46.450378
MVR 15.460378
MWK 1730.781951
MXN 20.375504
MYR 4.445039
MZN 63.910377
NAD 18.000472
NGN 1683.950377
NIO 36.730451
NOK 11.045204
NPR 135.080558
NZD 1.687906
OMR 0.384871
PAB 0.998157
PEN 3.738436
PGK 4.026459
PHP 58.601504
PKR 277.527805
PLN 4.055492
PYG 7794.944484
QAR 3.638271
RON 4.704304
RSD 110.518309
RUB 107.063548
RWF 1376.328845
SAR 3.75696
SBD 8.376531
SCR 14.270372
SDG 601.503676
SEK 10.902504
SGD 1.339504
SHP 0.789317
SLE 22.750371
SLL 20969.504736
SOS 570.470116
SRD 35.40366
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.733286
SYP 2512.529858
SZL 18.008977
THB 34.294038
TJS 10.879565
TMT 3.5
TND 3.138483
TOP 2.342104
TRY 34.658804
TTD 6.763052
TWD 32.454038
TZS 2635.010631
UAH 41.515521
UGX 3683.439641
UYU 42.759272
UZS 12827.781715
VES 47.548059
VND 25346.5
VUV 118.722009
WST 2.791591
XAF 619.850697
XAG 0.032661
XAU 0.000377
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.763525
XOF 619.850697
XPF 112.695488
YER 250.403591
ZAR 18.06054
ZMK 9001.203587
ZMW 26.874557
ZWL 321.999592
  • RBGPF

    62.0000

    62

    +100%

  • CMSC

    0.0200

    24.54

    +0.08%

  • NGG

    0.3500

    63.68

    +0.55%

  • SCS

    0.0000

    13.47

    0%

  • CMSD

    -0.0400

    24.32

    -0.16%

  • GSK

    -0.2000

    34.13

    -0.59%

  • VOD

    0.0000

    8.97

    0%

  • AZN

    0.4200

    67.62

    +0.62%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0300

    7.1

    -0.42%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    47.08

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    0.5200

    62.84

    +0.83%

  • BTI

    0.0000

    37.94

    0%

  • BCC

    1.2000

    147.6

    +0.81%

  • BCE

    0.0100

    27.03

    +0.04%

  • JRI

    0.2000

    13.61

    +1.47%

  • BP

    0.1800

    29.31

    +0.61%

In eastern Ukraine, the plight of another Volodymyr Zelensky
In eastern Ukraine, the plight of another Volodymyr Zelensky / Photo: © AFP

In eastern Ukraine, the plight of another Volodymyr Zelensky

When occupying Russian forces came knocking on doors in his small village in east Ukraine in late April to check the identities of residents, 64-year-old retiree Volodymyr Zelensky was terrified.

Text size:

Then, one of the Russian soldiers glanced at his passport and burst out laughing.

"It's okay guys, the war is over," the soldier said. "We can go home -- we got their president!"

Born in 1958 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, then part of the Soviet Union, to a coal miner and a construction worker, Zelensky, a namesake of the Ukrainian leader, served as a driver in the Soviet army and then worked in construction.

Since Russia invaded its neighbour in February, Zelensky, who has no known relationship to the Ukrainian president, has spent most of the war hiding from bombardment in the basement of his house.

"I had quit smoking four years before, but I started again," Zelensky said.

AFP is not disclosing the name of his village for security reasons.

- 'Don't look like him' -

His wife Valentina Zelenska, 72, evacuated to western Ukraine at the start of the war, but Zelensky refused to leave the home he purchased 20 years ago.

Here, he could finally breathe "the purest air" after years in a mining town, plant vegetables on his own plot, enjoy time on the patio, and fish in the local pond.

Zelenska returned home after Kyiv's forces expelled the Russians from the village late last month.

But it is now being pounded by Russian artillery, and she is alarmed whenever a blast outside blows the plastic sheet on their gutted window inwards.

"She hasn't gotten used to it," said her husband, wearing corduroy trousers and a jumper with a zip collar.

With the help of a flashlight, he retrieved an old photo album, and found a photo of himself as a man in his 40s in khaki uniform.

"I don't think I look like the president. Not at all," he said.

His wife disagreed.

"But you do look like him!" she said from her stool on the other edge of the living room.

He laughed.

"Which president are you talking about? Biden?" he asked.

- 'People can't take it anymore' -

His wife said Zelensky was a common last name in Ukraine, as well as in Russia.

But she admits she had never known any other Volodymyr Zelensky until Ukraine's current leader, a former comedian, was elected president in 2019.

Zelensky, the retiree, voted for his namesake in the election.

"He presents well, he is young, intelligent," he said.

But now Zelensky says he is disappointed that the president is not doing more to negotiate an end to the war with Russia.

"The people here can't take it anymore," he said.

Like many residents of his generation in the eastern Donbas region, Zelensky considers Ukraine to be his homeland.

But the former Soviet soldier is also nostalgic for his years under the Soviet regime, which he says brought peace and prosperity to his generation.

It was the couple's twenty-second marriage anniversary on Wednesday, and Zelensky wanted to give his wife a bunch of flowers.

But in a village ravaged by fighting and cut off from the rest of the world, there were none to be found.

L.Coleman--TFWP