President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and “the spirit of Ukraine” has been named Time magazine’s 2022 Person of the Year.
The president has led his country through the war with Russia following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
Despite international appeals for the 44-year-old and his family to be evacuated to a safe location during the opening days of the invasion, Mr Zelenskyy stayed in Kyiv with his defence forces.
He said he was “not hiding” and “not afraid of anyone” as he led his nation’s response.
Time’s editor-in-chief, Edward Felsenthal, said the magazine’s decision was “the most clear-cut in memory”.
‘Whether the battle for Ukraine fills one with hope or with fear, the world marched to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s beat in 2022.’
‘For proving that courage can be as contagious as fear, for stirring people and nations to come together in defence of freedom, for reminding the world of the fragility of democracy – and of peace – Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the spirit of Ukraine are Time’s 2022 Person of the Year,” he concluded.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Time: ‘I have not finished this great, important action for our country. Not yet.’
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and now the owner of Twitter, was handed the title last year.
