Ukraine’s most popular comedic actor was an unlikely President of his country. And now even more improbably, Volodymyr Zelensky has become the world’s most celebrated statesman. Yet more improbably, the first book about him comes from Australia.
Australian authors Andrew L. Urban and Chris McLeod are the first cab off the rank with a book about the man of the moment; Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine. As he began a video-link world tour of Western Parliaments making his case for military help to repel the illegal, immoral and murderous Russian invasion, the authors were following him online.
It was in those early days of the war that he was dubbed ‘Churchill in a T-shirt’ for his defiant stand and his channelling the great wartime leader’s words to inspire his nation – and us.
Gathering information about this 44 year old phenomenon, the authors have delivered a book that combines the urgent reality with the important background – both personal and political. He leads Servant of the People Party, surely the only political party born as a TV satire, and the majority of seats by far in the Ukrainian Parliament.
For the military minded, the book includes details about the machines of war in the conflict. And of course, there is a look at the important role social media played in his campaign to connect with his people and the people of the world.
One of the most pertinent chapters deals with the 1994 Budapest Memorandum which obliges the US, the UK – and yes, the Russian Federation – to protect Ukraine. So much for international agreements …
Introduced by former US Government intelligence analyst Rebekah Koffler, author of Putin’s Playbook, Zelensky is published by Wilkinson Publishing in Australia and by Regnery in the US. Publish date April 26, 2022
We see the return to Kherson with happiness. We see that the ‘Western’ press has been reporting ever since the invasion. But I don’t see how much the ‘Russians’ are learning. Where can I find out what Russian media are disseminating? I’d like to know what Russian people see on their news, but I don’t speak or read Russian (Cyrillic).
XEPCOH Ukranian / Russian
KEPΣON Greek
KERSON English [sounded]
Kherson Australian [written]
I haven’t read as widely as I might have, Editor. I hope that Russia will return to its pre-2014 borders. Tolstoy? Dostoyevsky and all the others, before and down to Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn?
I’m beginning to think that C21 international agreements aren’t worth all that much, unless they are backed by ‘vi et armis’ (if I remember my Horace correctly).
Best wishes, Garry.
These two are old stand-bys… https://tass.com/ and https://english.pravda.ru/russia/
Thanks, Andrew … I’ve checked-out those websites and I’m sorry to see that they seem to lack any sense of Russians questioning Putin’s war: Pravda and Tass seem to be printing only an official (Putin) line… yet Navalny is in prison. So too are others that have questioned this year’s war on the Ukraine. But still – my question is perhaps unanswered: beyond Tass and Pravda, are Russians able to access news from international agencies … BBC, Al Jaz, ABC or others?
Surely the seizure of the Crimea, the seizure of parts of the Ukraine and the attacks on various cities by missile … are attacks on democracy. Surely we must see that the invasion of the Ukraine by Russian troops is an affront to the civilised world. The holding of sham referenda in the occupied territories are acts of political pornography – denying real democratic choice while falsely claiming that the sham referenda are democratic expressions of the will of the people.
Throughout the war, Russia is seen to have bombed civilian targets. That is murder. We have seen this right from the beginning. Then, as areas have been occupied by the Russians, the civilian populations have been attacked by the occupying forces. There is evidence of killings of civilians – not by aerial bombing of civilian targets, but by the direct executions of civilians. That is murder. There is evidence too, of the torture of civilians and there are the mass graves which have been found in the forests as Russian forces have retreated in the face of Ukrainian advances ‘on the battlefield’. These are murders, by Russians, of Ukrainians on Ukrainian soil.
That ‘battlefield’ is their home: The Ukraine. What are Russian forces doing there? Why are Russian missiles hitting non-military targets?
I see Medvedev is now known to be on an international ‘wanted list’. And rightly so. However, in this war – an attack on a neighbour by a big, nasty murderer next door – we lack the international tools to come together to express our opposition. The United Nations … ‘more honoured [here] in the breach than the observance’?
Surely is is time for the UN to be re-constituted. Surely the ‘right to veto’* (which in the UN Security Council is given to five of its members) must be abolished. Why should the USA, Russia, China, the UK and France have a veto power that allows them to cancel any proposal put forward to the Security Council?* That’s not democracy, in my book: that’s ‘might is right’ type thinking.
If we are to have a body such as this one which we call the ‘United Nations’, then all its members should have equal votes. What do we have now? We have a situation where China could invade Taiwan and the UN Security Council would be powerless to even call for it to stop.
So too for the Ukraine: Russia has the veto and has used it**.
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_veto_power]
**[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/1/russia-vetoes-un-resolution-on-ukraine-annexation-china-abstains]
***[https://new-york-un.diplo.de/un-en/whatwedo/reform-of-the-united-nations/949390]
I had the book on order … finally picked it up this arvo: have read Koffler’s foreword – it poses some interesting questions … e.g. Zelensky: brave or reckless? I’ll keep reading … a bit at a time! (Smile! and thank you, Messrs Urban and McLeod).
Chris and I look forward to your thoughts …
Not enough said about Zelensky in my previous comment. A leader who doesn’t fill his private jet or super yacht with cash and makes a run for it , is a rare commodity indeed. What it comes down to now is that Zelensky has created an Army of 40 million people. 4 million women and children have sought safety elsewhere but, about 40 million have stayed. 4 million soldiers is the greatest army the world has ever seen. No one else has mustered such support from its population . Zelensky is not a General who sits 10 miles from the front line watching people die through his binoculars. He is in the trenches , which means , in the minds of Ukrainians , that he is a soldier in an army of 40 million people prepared to die to protect their homeland and the future of its people. There is a song called “I need a hero” . It should be played as the battle song against tyranny wherever we find it. In all conscience, you can’t as a leader, ask the people to do , that which you would not do yourself. I hereby nominate Zelensky for a medal of honour , not for bravery but for honour, he may fear for his life and for that of his family . He is risking death or capture , which could be worse than death but he stays . He stays because it’s the honourable thing to do. I hope he survives ! We need Heroes . Real ones. Not those made by propaganda by media . I want to see Zelensky on the Champs Elysse having a medal pinned upon his chest and another at the White House placed around his neck and an open letter signed by millions , given to him , thanking him for being the inspiration he has been and will be throughout the ages. Pv
Ironic isn’t it ? Ukraine gave up its Nuclear Weapons in return for protection from US UK and yes Russia !!!!! A tangled web indeed !!! Hitler was appeased by Chamberlain , and the rest is History. Don’t all our philosophers say that History repeats itself ? Nostradamus predicted hundreds of years into the future ,successfully mostly it seems , because every few decades in one form or another , history does repeat itself. A nasty dictator , a power mad King !!! The results are always the same . Mayhem bloodshed and death ! Different people , different weapons , same horrible outcome. Our respective governments can’t see the future although it lies in the past. Our recent prophets are more “Nostra dumb arse “ than NostraDamus “ The time has come for every non NATO member to protected by nato. Thanks USA for the last 100 years as the worlds policeman. Many of your sons have died so that others can live. Over to the world now to say to Russia ……. Get out ! Then and only then will your country be invited back to the human race and a united, United Nations. Aggressors will no longer have veto in the UN . We are lost if the truth of what is happening is not revealed to the Russian people and the rest of the world . Pv