Putin went to war and made a hero of Volodymyr Zelensky

If you’d asked me a week ago what I made of Volodymyr Zelensky, I wouldn’t have had much to say. At most, I would have pointed out that he used to be a comedian before becoming the president of Ukraine, and I would have been proud of myself for knowing that.

As it turns out, a lot can happen in a week.

On Sunday evening, I got teary while watching a clip from the Ukrainian version of Paddington, in which the bear is voiced by Zelensky. It was an objectively ridiculous scene; I would have just about been able to pick him out of a lineup on Wednesday and, a few days later, I practically wept as I watched him on Dancing With The Stars.

It should go without saying that I now have a soft spot for him as well, arguably made worse by the video of him dancing in high heels on Ukrainian TV a few years ago. It is an absurd state of affairs but, on the bright side, I know I am not the only one this has happened to.

As far as I can tell, around 40 per cent of tweets posted in Britain in the past couple of days have been about Zelensky; about his courage, his sense of leadership, and the highs of his pre-political career. Vladimir Putin went to war and a hero was born.

This tide of swooning political opinion has already been criticised by high-minded people; a war is not a Disney movie with villains and princes, the president’s pre-invasion record was far from spotless, idolising real, living politicians rarely ends well, and so on.

It certainly feels like the right opinion to have; the position grown-ups with a sense of proportions should adopt. I am just not sure it is correct.

This is a war unlike any other for many of us. It is happening in Europe, a continent that last experienced a conflict of this scale before I was born. It happened remarkably quickly, at a point when even experts expected the dithering to last for longer. More importantly, it is unfolding online, to an extent that had never been seen before.

Tweets and updates aren’t only coming from journalists or official sources; there are Ukrainians, both young and old, fighting and hiding, defiant and terrified, telling us about what they are going through, every hour of every day. It is gripping and horrifying because it is all so human; the small moments of quiet and unexpected peace, the bravery shown by people who have no other choice.

It is easier than ever to feel painfully connected to the citizens of Kyiv and elsewhere, who only last week were going about their lives as normal. Really, Zelensky’s background is compelling because it is so utterly normal. He danced on television and now he is fighting for the future of his country; the world cannot look away.

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He isn’t some grand figure bred to lead troops on the battlefield, or a man in a suit sending soldiers to their deaths from the comfort of a palace. There is a humanity in him, and the people he is trying to protect, that is usually hard to witness from afar.

In this context, it feels entirely normal that people would fancy him, post about him like he is a normal celebrity in more peaceful times, or even make the occasional meme about him and his people. He is a person and we are people and that is how we relate to one another.

That we are having such personal reactions to what is happening in Ukraine can only be a good thing. People aren’t always solemn and they do not always talk in figures and facts, strategies or analyses. They laugh and cry, they root for people, and they find some of them attractive and charming.

Remaining sober about this would mean keeping a distance between Ukrainians and the rest of the world, and this outpouring of often clumsy, occasionally embarrassing posts and opinions shows that it will simply not happen.

Perhaps it won’t mean much in the long run, and perhaps it will be seen as tasteless and odd once it is all over, but who cares? No one is perfect and sometimes it is easy to get carried away if you care too much. That is, and will always be preferable to not caring enough.