Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been the pivotal figure in Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s four-year war of aggression – and he says it has taken a toll on him.
In an interview with AFP marking the anniversary of the invasion, he talked about how the conflict has changed him, revealing…
…what he can’t do anymore
Zelenskyy said he doesn’t get much time with his wife and two children. He doesn’t see them every day anymore and never manages to go out with them.
Zelenskyy said:
“I don’t go to the movies, I don’t go to the theater, and the kids go with their grandmother when they can, but I don’t go anywhere else either. I don’t go to stores, I haven’t been to a cafe once in all the years of the war.”
…his daily routine
Zelenskyy tends to text Ukraine’s air force commander, Anatolyy Kryvonozhka, “all night” about air strikes.
He then gets up at 6am or 7am, he said. First, he reads the news on his phone before moving on to physical exercises.
This can be a circle exercise – “even a quick 25 to 30 minute workout is pretty good”, he said. Sometimes he does more weight training, but not every time.
Zelenskyy said he used to love running but doesn’t run anymore since the war.
…his health habits
Zelenskyy said he is “not trying to get fat”, normally, by way of physical activities.
In terms of his diet, he said his wife doesn’t make breakfast for him anymore, as she used to do before the war.
…why he can’t reveal the last book he read
Zelenskyy said he still manages to watch movies.
The last one he watched was ‘Nuremberg’ on demand. He also watched ‘One Battle After Another’, which he liked.
If he reads, he tends to read non-fiction, historical literature nowadays, which he “can use”. This includes a book about historical figures such as Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, which he got for his birthday.
When asked about the last book he read, Zelenskyy replied:
“Let’s not talk about it now, or [Finnish President Alexander Stubb] will get too proud.”
He revealed Stubb gave him a book he had written because there’s “something about me in it” and he started reading it.
…where he lives
Zelenskyy doesn’t live in a bunker anymore, as he used to do for two years during the war.
“From the first day of the war, I knew that we couldn’t all be driven into a bunker,” the president said.
“You go there at night, sit in the bunker, talk in the morning but you still have to come back here, go out.”
He also revealed he doesn’t go to the bunker anymore during air raids – which prompts his guards to shout at him that he is setting a bad example for his people.
