President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and “the spirit of Ukraine” has been named Person of the Year 2022 by Time magazine.
The annual award given by the editors of the American magazine is given to the person who is considered to have had the most global influence in the last 12 months.
The magazine previously declared its Person of the Year as the person “who has most influenced the news or our lives, for better or for worse”.
Mr Zelensky led his country through war with Russia after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February.
Despite international calls for the 44-year-old and his family to be evacuated to a safe place during the first days of the invasion, Mr Zelenskyy remained in Kyiv with his defense forces.
He said he was “not hiding” and “not afraid of anyone” as he led his country’s response.
Mr. Zelenskyy was born in 1978 in Russian-speaking Kryvyi Rih, a region in the southeast of what was then known as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
He was 12 when the Soviet Union dissolved and Ukraine gained independence.
The former comedian and actor shocked the world when he won the 2019 presidential election with a landslide 73% runoff victory over Petro Poroshenko.
Time reporter Simon Shuster said the president’s “success as a wartime leader hinged on the fact that courage is contagious” and that it “spread through Ukraine’s political leaders in the first days of the invasion”.
Mr Zelenskyy told Time: ‘I haven’t finished this great and important action for our country. Not yet.’
Xi Jinping and Liz Cheney were candidates
Several candidates were considered for 2022, including the Chinese president, Xi JinpingAmerican politician Liz Cheney and billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.
Elon Muskthe CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and now owner of Twitter, was won the title last year.
Other winners include Angela Merkel in 2015, Donald Trump in 2016, Greta Thunberg in 2019 and Joe Biden alongside Kamala Harris in 2020.
Actress Michelle Yeoh was named Icon of the Year 2022 yesterday as the magazine celebrated her 40-year career, including Everything Everywhere All at Once, tipped to be an Oscar favourite.
The annual tradition began in 1927 when American aviator Charles Lindbergh received the title after making the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris.
The distinction can also be given to people who are controversial because of their impact on world events, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin being previously named.
