Volodymyr Zelenskyy published a 39-second selfie video early on Saturday morning.

In the morning light, the Ukrainian President is standing in an olive-colored pullover on the square in front of his official residence in the center of Kiev.

Every Ukrainian who has ever watched the news recognizes this place - it is the background against which, in other times, state guests arriving to visit Kiev were filmed.

Reinhard Veser

Editor in Politics.

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“All good morning, Ukrainians!” Zelenskyy begins.

A lot of disinformation is being spread right now: that he is calling on the army to stop fighting and is leaving the city himself.

"It's not like this.

I'm here.

We're not laying down our arms.

We will protect our state.

Our weapon is our truth, our truth is our country, our children.

And we will defend all of that.

That's all I wanted to tell you.

Glory to Ukraine!”

It was the second video of this kind that Zelenskyy addressed to his compatriots to counter rumors spread from Russia that he had left the country.

The evening before he had shown himself – also obviously taken by himself – with the leader of his party, with his most important advisors and Prime Minister Denis Schmyhal on the square in front of the presidential seat: “We are here.

Our soldiers are here.

Civil society is here.

we are all here

Defend our country.

And that's how it will stay.

Glory to our defenders!

Glory to our defenders!

Glory to Ukraine!”

In his first video message after the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine on Thursday morning, Zelenskyy promised the Ukrainians that he would keep them informed.

He stuck to that.

Several times a day, footage of him standing at the lectern in front of a gray wall with the Ukrainian coat of arms and the inscription “Office of the President of Ukraine” is circulated, reporting on the situation at the front and on efforts to provide for the population ensure.

He calls on the Ukrainians to show solidarity and asks them to take care of those who are alone and in need of help, affirms the will to fight, thanks the soldiers, says how proud he is of the Ukrainians, attacks the Russian president and speaks to those Russians to those protesting against the war: "We see you."

Selenskyj has gained a lot of respect with his performances in the past few days.

From the outside it is difficult to determine to what extent they are perceived by the population.

But journalists who harshly criticized him before the war and political activists who agitated against him during the election campaign three years ago are now praising him on social media: he is proving to be a worthy leader of a nation at war.

Companions had turned away from Zelenskyj

In the weeks after the start of the Russian troop deployment in the fall of last year, domestic politics in the Ukraine was still busy.

Zelenskyi had announced a "war against the oligarchs," and his predecessor Petro Poroshenko had been accused of treason in a dubious trial, to put it mildly.