War in Ukraine: Who is President Volodymyr Zelensky’s bodyguard?

The invasion of Ukraine began two weeks ago. Cities have been taken by the Russian army; others, bombarded, are still defending themselves against the onslaught – like Kiev; some, such as Odessa, are preparing for combat. Among the stories of the war, there are those of the resistance. And in the first place of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has changed in stature and has become a military leader. He can count on loyal lieutenants who have also revealed themselves in this tragic context. Overview.

• Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister

It is she who, for three days, has been tirelessly advancing to the desk, khaki-colored clothes and drawn features – like all Ukrainian officials -, to give the news on the complex file of the evacuation corridors. On these ceasefires, although decided between Kiev and Moscow to allow civilians to flee the bombarded cities but which, it seems, have only been respected partially – if at all. Iryna Verechchuk, 43, Deputy Prime Minister, is one of the figures who appeared at the forefront of this war, on the Ukrainian side, behind President Volodymyr Zelensky.

She joined the ex-comedian in 2019, when the latter sought the presidency of the country. Iryna Vereshchuk was elected as a member of the Ukrainian Parliament in August of the same year, then returned to the government last November. She then became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine. She is taking over, for only a few months, a thorny issue: that of the conflict in Donbass, this eastern Ukrainian territory disputed by pro-Russian separatists – the recognition of the “republics” of Donetsk and Lugansk by Vladimir Putin was the starting point of the Russian invasion.

Iryna Verechchuk, born in Rawa-Rouska, a town on the border with Poland, trained at the Military Institute. She “served for five years as an officer in the Ukrainian army after her discharge”, relief Release. Her political career only began after this passage in uniform, once she graduated in law and from the Regional Institute of Public Administration. In 2010, she ran for and won the town hall of Rawa-Rouska. She is, at 30, the youngest city councilor in the country.

His resignation, five years later, allows him little by little to carve out a place for himself in the national political landscape. Until becoming one of the relatives of Volodymyr Zelensky, at the head of an invaded country. Freed notes that in 2014, at the start of the fighting in the Donbass, Iryna Vereshchuk appealed to Russian mothers to prevent the war. A request repeated last week, eight years after his first call: “Now I turn to Russian mothers: ‘Get your sons out of Ukraine.'”

• Mykhailo Fedorov, the digital warlord

It was his exchange of tweets with Elon Musk, the billionaire boss of Space X and Tesla, who revealed it beyond the Ukrainian sphere. It was two days before the start of the Russian invasion of his country; five years after Putin recognized the independence of the separatist territories of Donbass. Mykhailo Fedorov, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation, continues to regularly post photos of material received by Ukraine and sent by the billionaire on social networks. At World, with whom he exchanged by email from Kiev, he assures that “digital is [leur] main tool in this unjust war”.

In war communication, digital technology plays a key role. And the role of Mykhailo Fedorov is essential. As early as February 26, he announced that he was raising a cyberarmy of volunteer hackers – named “IT Army of Ukraine“-, to wage a cyber war against Russia. Just over 308,000 people have joined the Telegram loop. The group is trying to disable various Russian and Belarusian sites and services.

“We have already carried out about fifty attacks”, specifies to the World the Deputy Prime Minister, the youngest member of the government. Another volunteer unit composed for cyberwar and supported by Mykhailo Fedorov: a “team of information influencers”. They seek to show, from a distance, the reality of the conflict to the Russians, who are subjected to Vladimir Putin’s propaganda. At the same time, the minister writes and calls on the big digital companies to stop operating in Russia. With some success.

When he entered politics, the young Mykhailo Fedorov, a graduate of the National University of Zaporizhia and founder of a digital services company, nevertheless experienced failure. In 2014, he ran for the legislative elections under the banner of the micro-libertarian party 5.10, but lost the election. Five years later, he joined Volodymyr Zelensky’s team for the presidential campaign. In charge of digital, he allows his candidate to quickly gain popularity in his country. There is, without a doubt, still the paw of Mykhailo Fedorov behind the digital communication of the warlord Zelensky now known, despite the circumstances, on a larger scale.

• Andriy Yermak, chief of staff

We often see it in the background, in the photos and videos with which Volodymyr Zelensky feeds the social networks. Same khaki T-shirt, same tired eyes. It is also he who in the middle of an interview with the president with a television crew from Channel 4announces to him the bombardment of the Jewish memorial of Babi Yar, on March 1st.

The explosions, which hit the Kiev television tower, ultimately did not damage the site itself. But the sequence indicates the place occupied by Andriy Yermak with Volodymyr Zelensky: very close. Logic, for a chief of staff of the presidency. “Around the President, two characters count”, wrote Release in September 2021. In addition to Sergiy Chéfir, his “great treasurer”, there is “Andriy Yermak, the powerful head of the President’s Office, a real vice-president who has established himself as the strong man of the country, influential in foreign policy and interior”.

Born in Kiev, Andriy Yermak, 50, graduated in private international law from the Taras-Shevchenko National University, located in the capital. After his studies, he founded a firm and worked in the field of intellectual property. He met Volodymyr Zelensky in the early 2010s, when both were working in television and film and series production. They become friends and, years later, Andriy Yermak joins Zelensky’s presidential campaign team. He became his foreign policy adviser and negotiated, in particular, prisoner exchanges with Russia in the context of the war in the Donbass. In February 2020, he takes charge of the cabinet of the presidency.

“I write this text from a bunker in the capital, with President Volodymyr Zelensky at my side. For a week, Russian bombs have fallen on us […]. We will fight to the last breath to protect our country.” he wrote on March 2 in the New York Times, as a call for help from Western countries. Like his head of state, Andriy Yermak uses social networks to communicate on the situation in the country, on the requests of the resistant authorities, on the needs of the Ukrainian army. On Wednesday, he highlighted his exchanges with American actor and director Sean Penn, who was shooting a documentary in Ukraine in the early days of the Russian invasion. They mentioned, in particular, the aircraft needs of the Ukrainian troops.

• Vitali Klitschko, Mayor of Kyiv

He is, with Volodymyr Zelensky, one of the most prominent national figures since the beginning of the Russian invasion. The ex-comedian became president a few years after the ex-boxer put away his gloves to put on his mayoral clothes. Vitali Klitschko, 50, was elected in 2014 as head of the capital, Kiev. Then re-elected in 2020. Since the start of the Russian invasion, he has taken up arms with his brother Wladimir, another boxing colossus, to defend his city, which the enemy army is trying to surround. And multiplies the videos, in fatigues, bulletproof vest or rifle nearby, to mobilize the Ukrainians – according to him “ready to fight until the end” – or to urge the international community to act.

Born in 1971 in the former Kyrgyz Soviet Republic – now Kyrgyzstan – Vitali Klitschko arrived in Kiev in the 1980s. His father was a general in the Soviet army. In particular, he took part in cleaning up the Chernobyl site. Following in his father’s footsteps, Vitali Klitschko dreamed of being a fighter pilot. But his build – 2.02 m, 110 kilos – directs him to the boxing rings. “Dr Ironfist”, “Doctor iron fist”, the nickname he owes both to his length and to the possession of a doctorate in sports sciences, will be the pride of his country with his multiple titles of champions of the heavyweight world and his 45 victories (including 41 by KO) in 47 professional fights.

He announced his retirement from sport in November 2005, tried to conquer the town hall of Kiev in 2006. He lost, made a pugilistic comeback in 2008 before finally hanging up the gloves in 2013. The previous year, he had recorded his first victory politics by winning a seat in Parliament. Under the colors of the liberal Oudar party, whose very appropriate acronym means “punch”, Vitali Klitschko poses as an opponent of President Yanukovych. The boxing champion immediately became one of the figures of the Maïdan movement. A time tipped for the presidential election, he rallies to Petro Poroshenko and finally conquers the town hall of Kiev.

If the ex-boxer and the ex-comedian did not always have a perfect agreement – relations were “tense”, in 2019, according to Kiev Post now closed – they are event bound. And both represent Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion.