zelensky biography book

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Zelensky: A Biography of Ukraine's War Leader Hardcover – August 4, 2022

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• Print length 256 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Canbury Press
• Publication date August 4, 2022
• Dimensions 5.5 x 1 x 8.5 inches
• ISBN-10 1912454777
• ISBN-13 978-1912454778
• See all details

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Canbury Press (August 4, 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1912454777
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1912454778
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1 x 8.5 inches
• #4,498 in WWII Biographies
• #5,557 in Presidents & Heads of State Biographies
• #259,819 in History (Books)

About the author

Steven derix.

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Zelensky: A Biography by Serhii Rudenko review – from voice of Paddington to global giant

This uneven account of the Ukrainian president’s three years in power is aimed at his home market, but offers glimpses of the man behind the wartime facade

U ntil 24 February this year, Volodymyr Zelenskiy was a name that was not widely known outside Ukraine. True, he’d enjoyed a cameo role in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump , when it appeared that the former American president had tried to pressure the new Ukrainian president into serving up dirt on Joe Biden’s son Hunter by allegedly blocking payment of a military aid package.

But even then, he was just another leader of Ukraine , the largest entirely European nation, no more recognisable to the general populace than any of his five predecessors – the likes of Viktor Yanukovych and Petro Poroshenko. With Vladimir Putin’s catastrophic decision to invade Ukraine, however, he suddenly became a global figurehead, an international hero, a modern David standing up to the brutal Russian Goliath.

He seemed sharp-witted – when offered evacuation by the US government, he apparently replied: “ I need ammunition, not a ride ”, though the US authorities denied that such a conversation took place. He seem determined. And he seemed to realise that if his country were to have a chance of defending itself, he needed to rally international support as much through emotional public appeals as by discreet diplomacy.

But who is this overnight sensation, where did he come from and what does he believe in? Ukraine-watchers already knew that he was a comedic actor by profession, who had starred in a hit TV series called Servant of the People , in which he played a high-school history teacher who, after making an anti-corruption rant that goes viral, unexpectedly becomes president of Ukraine.

That he then went on to set up his own political party called, after the show, Servant of the People, ran for president and won a convincing victory was like some kind of meta postmodern joke in which fiction subsumes reality. When it emerged that he was also the voice of Paddington Bear in the Ukrainian version of the hit film, it seemed as if Zelenskiy was himself a brilliant comic invention, someone able to withstand the might of Russia through the novel means of parodic performance theatre.

All the same, the question still remains: who is Zelenskiy and what is he really about? Those looking for answers to the Zelenskiy enigma will be disappointed by this hastily written and translated book, which bills itself as “A Biography”. Written by Serhii Rudenko, a Ukrainian political commentator, it’s not really a life story, but an account of his eventful three years in office.

Actually, that makes it sound a more coherent narrative than it is. Part of the problem is that it’s written for a Ukrainian audience, people who are aware who Garik Martirosyan and Olena Malyashenko are. An added difficult​y​ is the tone, which is often gossipy, knowing, sardonic and sometimes scathing, but in ways that it would require a working knowledge of the Ukrainian political scene to appreciate.

We do learn that Zelenskiy grew up in the tough industrial city of Kryvyi Rih, having spent his early years in the small Mongolian town of Erdenet, where his father was in charge of a mining and processing plant. He was well liked at school. He studied law at university, at the behest of his father, but after leaving set up an improvisational team with schoolfriends that came to national prominence as Kvartal 95.

It doesn’t get a lot more detailed than that faint sketch. What is evident, though, is that Zelenskiy’s political rise owed a great deal to the sense of despair felt by most Ukrainians at their corrupt political elite. Presidents came and went but, regardless of whether they were pro- or anti-Russian, they all tended to be backed by self-interested oligarchs and advised by a self-enriching band of cronies. Despite presenting himself as a clean break from the double-dealing status quo, Zelenskiy himself is indebted to Ihor Kolomoisky, the Ukranian-Cypriot-Israeli billionaire who controls the 1+1 TV channel and supported Zelenskiy’s presidential campaign. Kolomoisky, who denies any wrongdoing, has been banned from the US on suspicion of “significant corruption”.

And Zelenskiy is surrounded by his own band of cronies, one of whom, a former economics minister, was recorded telling a group of journalists how his boss had a “fog in his head” when it came to economic matters. It’s also said that Zelenskiy once made light of Ukrainian protesters in the Donbas.

So based on this – largely favourable – portrait, Zelenskiy is not the stainless paragon of western fantasies. But then he doesn’t need to be. What Ukraine requires right now is a leader who can unite the nation, embody its struggle and is able to motivate and mobilise a people under savage assault by a regime that sees Nazis everywhere but that comes closer to actual fascism than any in Europe since the late General Franco’s. It does’t really matter if Zelenskiy is acting, because wartime leaders are all actors of one sort or another, projecting an image of self-belief and resolution that few, in their private hours, truly feel. So far it’s a convincing act, indistinguishable from the real thing, which effectively makes it the real thing.

The takeaways from this uneven book are that Ukraine is a flawed democracy and that Zelenskiy, despite his reformist rhetoric, is a product of the system. But he’s hugely preferable to his adversary and if Ukraine manages to resist Putin’s attempt to drag it back into the Russian empire it will in no small way be down to a leader with the strength of character to rise to the daunting moment.

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Zelensky: A Biography Hardcover – Aug. 8 2022

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Three years after the political novice Volodymyr Zelensky was elected to Ukraine’s highest office, he found himself catapulted into the role of war-time leader.  The former comedian has become the public face of his country’s courageous and bloody struggle against a brutal invasion.  Zelensky’s extraordinary leadership in the face of Russia’s aggression is an inspiration to everyone who stands opposed to the appalling violence unleashed on Ukraine.   This book – the first biography of Zelensky published in English – tells his astonishing story.  It has been revised and updated for this new paperback edition.

• ISBN-10 1509556389
• ISBN-13 978-1509556380
• Edition 1st
• Publisher Polity
• Publication date Aug. 8 2022
• Language English
• Dimensions 14.48 x 2.29 x 21.84 cm
• Print length 200 pages
• See all details

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Selected as one of The New Statesman’s Best Books of 2023

"War is a rupture―in a country's life and a leader's. Amid the calamity, Ukrainians have proven lucky in theirs. As Mr Rudenko writes at the close, the man who was 'visibly nervous' in his early bouts of diplomacy, the ingénue and clown, now has an experience of statecraft that no modern Western leader can match, nor would wish to." The Economist

"From voice of Paddington to global giant... the man behind the wartime façade" The Observer

"The first English-language biography of Zelensky reveals what Ukrainians really think of him" The Telegraph

"Serhii Rudenko's biography is a portrait of a wartime hero whose troubled past may return to haunt him... [It is] an extraordinary life story, which is still being written. Reading this biography now, in the wake of a war that upended our understanding of both Zelensky and Ukraine, presents his personal history in a new light." Lyse Doucet, The New Statesman

"Fascinating" The Guardian

"A fast-paced biography of an unexpected world leader... the author capably shows how Zelensky has displayed an astonishing transformation in the face of continued Russian aggression." Kirkus

"Rudenko has written a succinct political biography that plunges readers right into the middle of the Ukrainian political scene" Prospect Magazine

"... important and detailed...: Zelensky is easily the equal of the most impressive wartime leaders the West has ever had." Owen Matthews, The Spectator "deftly charts the transformation of a former comedian into a reforming president and then, swiftly, into a charismatic wartime leader and global figure." The New Statesman

About the Author

Serhii Rudenko is a Ukrainian journalist and political commentator who has published several books on Ukrainian politicians.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Polity; 1st edition (Aug. 8 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 200 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1509556389
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1509556380
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 408 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 14.48 x 2.29 x 21.84 cm
• #1,038 in Political Philosophy (Books)
• #1,649 in Political Biographies (Books)
• #8,493 in Politics (Books)

About the author

Sergii rudenko.

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Volodymyr Zelensky behind the mask

Serhii Rudenko’s biography is a portrait of a wartime hero whose troubled past may return to haunt him.

By Lyse Doucet

“Good evening friends,” began Volodymyr Zelensky . It was five minutes to midnight. Ukraine’s wartime president, hailed the world over for his masterclass in leadership, now speaks every night to the people of Ukraine, and many beyond. But this address on New Year’s Eve 2018, on the independent TV channel 1+1, came as a surprise to everyone, including the then-president, Petro Poroshenko.

“Dear Ukrainians, I’m promising you I will run for president. And I’m doing it right away.”

Ukrainian social media exploded. Poroshenko supporters who’d been settling in, Champagne glasses at the ready, for the traditional interruption of regular programming for a presidential New Year’s greeting, were incensed. “Who? This clown?” they asked. “Who is he to run for president?”

That was the night Ukraine’s star comedian and actor – famed for his cheeky, at times crude, comedic routines – entered the political stage. Was it just a publicity stunt, people wondered – another Zelensky antic to promote his popular TV serie s Servant of the People produced by his media company Kvartal 95 Studio, in which his character, the history teacher Vasiliy Holoborodko, is catapulted into the presidency?

It was no joke. Poroshenko was soon crushed by a whopping 73 per cent of the vote by a fresh-faced, clean-shaven 41-year-old – the same guy who’d spent years making jokes about him. Now Zelensky was promising to end cronyism and stop a shooting war in eastern Ukraine where Russian boots first crossed the border in 2014.

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[See also: The Zelensky myth: why we should resist hero-worshipping Ukraine’s president ]

Now the world knows this Zelensky, his face bearded and lined, the supreme commander-in-chief uniting his compatriots, inspiring people the world over as he stands up to the shadowy figure of Vladimir Putin , bent on bombing and besieging Ukraine into submission. In those first breathtaking weeks after Russian tanks rumbled across the borders, the internet sparkled with every Zelensky gem. “Did you know he was the Ukrainian voice of Paddington Bear?” “He won Ukraine’s Dancing with the Stars in 2006!”

But today this conflict drags on with no end in sight; it’s everyone’s war now. The cost of the food on our tables and the power keeping the lights on in our homes connects to this barbaric conflagration in Europe’s far corner.

Zelensky now disrupts the world’s media landscape, addressing parliaments from Germany to Japan via video, popping up everywhere from the Grammys to Glastonbury . A consummate communicator, he hits all the right notes: in Britain, he channels his inner Churchill; in Germany, he invokes Ronald Reagan’s “tear down this wall” Berlin speech; in America, Pearl Harbour and 9/ll. One of the few rebukes came from Israel when Ukraine’s Jewish leader tried to draw history lessons from the Holocaust. A team of former top journalists and old TV buddies helps shape this stream. But the first and last word is said to come from Zelensky – a president who films his own video selfies, urging his nation to hold its nerve and berating Western allies to send ever more weapons in a war he’s fighting to secure their future too.

It was only a matter of time before a publisher rushed something into print about this man of the moment. The first, by the Ukrainian writer and commentator Serhii Rudenko, known for his political biographies , was initially published in Ukrainian in 2021, with a title that translates as “Zelensky without Make-Up”. Comprising 38 small chapters, some just a few pages long, the text has been updated with a preface, “Zelensky’s Political Oscar”, and an epilogue, “The President of War” – bookends of an extraordinary life story, which is still being written. Reading this biography now, in the wake of a war that upended our understanding of both Zelensky and Ukraine, presents his personal history in a new light.

It’s not a tidy chronology: Rudenko takes us back and forth in time, offering us Zelensky’s story as if it were a chocolate box, a morsel at a time. But this is no fairy tale. Some chapters tell of endearing childhood dreams. Of course, there’s a section on his entanglement with Donald Trump, who famously telephoned the unsuspecting Zelensky in 2019 looking for a little help to bring down his rival Joe Biden by asking for Biden’s son Hunter to be investigated. And there are the anecdotes of corruption, betrayals and break-ups – the unfinished business of Ukraine’s day-to-day politics that was pushed to the bottom of the pile once the task of fighting an existential war took over.

Every once in a while, the old stories creep in. This month, the European Commission’s beaming president, Ursula von der Leyen, dressed in the brilliant yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag, announced Ukraine’s candidacy to join this European club. But behind the effusive statements, there are the whispered warnings. Although Zelensky pushed for the fast track for EU membership, Ukraine will be on a very slow road to rein in its oligarchs, crack down on corruption and build far more effective institutions of state. Cynics say it will never get to the end of that road.

“Ukraine’s packaging is great,” an international adviser in Kyiv recently told me. “But there’s not much beneath the president and all his advisers.”

Zelensky was born to Jewish parents in 1978, in Kryvyi Rih in southern central Ukraine, a “city of miners and metallurgists” and at the time one of the most polluted places in the USSR. Zelensky’s father wanted him to excel in sciences: a “B” grade in maths for Zelensky was “a day of mourning” in their home. But, in Rudenko’s telling, all his school teachers “without exception mention Zelensky as a diligent and intelligent child whose ambition was to be on the stage”. He studied law but dazzled in the KVK championships, a popular contest of comedy and song on Russian television.

But this book about the making of a charismatic communicator is also about his unmaking – at least until a war got in the way. Like the schoolteacher-turned-president he once played on the screen, Zelensky came to power promising “no to nepotism and friends in power”. But kumy – cronies or close buddies – soon turned up everywhere. They included staff from Zelensky’s production company. As Rudenko describes it, “a year after [Zelensky’s] election, the Poroshenko family was replaced by the Zelensky family – or, more precisely, by Kvartal 95 Studio”.

And it wasn’t just talented TV types. That 1+1 TV channel which broadcast Zelensky’s first election campaign speech on New Year’s eve was controlled by Ihor Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine’s wealthiest oligarchs. He had funded a private army to fight in the region bordering the Donbas in eastern Ukraine when Russian-backed separatists grabbed territory in 2014. Rudenko asks, but doesn’t answer, whether Kolomoisky (who happened to be Poroshenko’s nemesis) and Zelensky launched the TV series Servant of the People as a rehearsal for the real political party that eventually emerged and took the same name.

But Kolomoisky’s relationship with “his” president soon started unravelling, fuelled by his unsuccessful attempts to regain control, and compensation, for his nationalised PrivatBank. And now he is being investigated in the US for money laundering.

[See also: Putin and Zelensky offer contrasting visions of the future ]

In the book’s last pages we read how, the day before Russia’s invasion, Zelensky gathered 50 of Ukraine’s most prosperous citizens to urge them to play their part in the coming conflict. They’d been fighting another battle since last September, when Ukraine’s parliament passed a law directed at them. Zelensky had described the register, meant to be put in place this spring, as a way of resolving, once and for all, the relationship between the state and the oligarchs. “Or… more accurately,” as Rudenko puts it, “Zelensky’s own relationship with them.” Rudenko details how Zelensky’s team repeatedly tried to send Poroshenko to jail but concludes that “there are considerable doubts about whether Zelensky actually wants to put Poroshenko behind bars”.

The comedian who did everything possible to make Ukrainians smile had promised, “I will do everything possible so Ukrainians at least do not cry.” But now he is the nation’s consoler-in-chief as entire cities are wiped off the map, countless lives shredded, soldiers slaughtered. He keeps repeating his election pledge to do everything he can to end this conflict – including attempting talks with the man in Moscow.

Rudenko reveals that, in 2019, “Zelensky sincerely believed that, if he looked into the eyes of the Russian president he would at least see some sign of sadness about the 14,000 dead in the Donbas.” Even more, he “seemed convinced that his actor’s charisma and unique charm would work wonders”. No more.

Zelensky’s first, and so far only, opportunity to look into Putin’s eyes came in the December 2019 Normandy Format talks in Paris, which grouped together Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany. But when the fateful moment came, Ukraine’s novice “was noticeably nervous”.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, who is given a rough ride by Ukrainians for daring to hint at the need for territorial compromise, had struck up a relationship with Zelensky long before others did. In April 2019, between the first and second rounds of Ukraine’s presidential election, he invited both Poroshenko and Zelensky to the Elysée Palace. Again, Zelensky was “visibly nervous”. But Rudenko also notes that “Zelensky and Macron understood each other almost instantaneously”.

Fast-forward to June 2022 when Zelensky, in trademark T-shirt, confidently stands outside his office in the Kyiv sunshine to welcome the finely suited Macron, along with German, Italian and Lithuanian leaders. He extends his visibly muscled arms for firm handshakes and fraternal hugs. His visitors’ admiration is palpable. So many, including Putin, had misjudged Zelensky. They expected – even urged – him to flee on the first flight out of Kyiv in those early jaw-dropping days as Russian forces closed in. Ukraine’s military prowess was underestimated; Russia’s overestimated. War is the stuff of metal – and mettle.

It’s much the same on the home front. Critics, among them Zelensky’s close friends and senior officials who had turned against him within months of his electoral triumph, made snide remarks off camera about the president’s inexperience and understanding when I interviewed them in the run-up to Russia’s invasion. Now even the ex-president Poroshenko, who, like Zelensky, has taken to wearing military garb, has rallied behind his former opponent. He recently told me, “Our unity is our most effective weapon against Putin because he’s trying to undermine us from within.” “We’re all soldiers now,” he insisted as he stood in his sandbagged position.

And Rudenko, who watched Zelensky’s early political acrobatics close-up, also can’t resist the swell of patriotic feeling. In his updated biography, he hails a leader who came to power when “few if any believed in the fighting abilities of the president… who didn’t have a clue what the Ukrainian army was”.

He doesn’t take us inside Zelensky’s head; he just gives us the stories behind his presidency. “These tribulations showed us the real Zelensky,” is his conclusion after the invasion.

But now this performer turned president turned wartime leader speaks, visibly pained, of a new stage in a grinding war which is “spiritually difficult, emotionally difficult… We don’t have a sense of how long it will last, how many more blows, losses and efforts will be needed before we see victory is on the horizon.” This phase of the conflict may be Zelensky’s toughest test yet. He’s already shown himself to be less sure-footed as he veers from vague talk of compromises to save lives to vowing to take back every inch of Ukrainian land. As a leader who can read the room, he knows Ukrainian views are hardening in this miasma of Russian war crimes. But he also senses – and warns against – the “war fatigue” in some capitals; one day it will overwhelm his own. It’s the hardest of high-wire acts, even for Zelensky.

Zelensky: A Biography Serhii Rudenko Polity Press, 200pp, £20

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[See also: What Antony Beevor gets wrong about Russia ]

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The Biography of Volodymyr Zelenskyy: President and Leader of Ukraine Paperback – 18 April 2022

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Dispelling the myths and mystery around Ukraine’s current president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, this fascinating biography unravels the incredible story behind the man who has come to define Ukraine. Whether it’s his famous stand against government corruption, his passionate call for unity between the Ukrainian and Russian people, or his staunch defense of liberty in the face of Russia’s 2022 invasion, Zelenskyy has captured the attention of the world for his determination and larger-than-life personality.

Retracing his humble origins as a comedian and actor, The Biography of Volodymyr Zelenskyy peels back the curtain on his climb to power, offering readers a concise and easy-to-understand perspective on the culture and politics of Ukraine. You’ll follow Zelenskyy as he launches his beloved comedy show Servant of the People , you’ll witness his explosive dive into politics and his unparalleled victory in the 2019 presidential campaign, and you’ll get a profound glimpse into the life of the man who put everything on the line to hold Ukraine together in the face of total war.

As a compelling read for anybody who wants to take a deep dive into the Russa-Ukraine conflict, or for anyone curious about Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s life and accomplishments, this biography distills current events into an easy-to-understand timeline, helping you develop an informed and well-rounded opinion about Ukraine’s crisis and the man who stands between Putin and the Ukrainian people.

• Print length 86 pages
• Language English
• Publication date 18 April 2022
• Dimensions 12.7 x 0.51 x 20.32 cm
• ISBN-13 979-8805388966
• See all details

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09XZGTZF5
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (18 April 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 86 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8805388966
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.7 x 0.51 x 20.32 cm
• 7,973 in Political Leader Biographies

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A Biography of Ukraine's War Leader

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Table of Contents

About the book.

• At 30, he headed a multimillion-dollar TV company.
• At 40, he took on Ukraine’s corrupt political and business elite in a TV drama, playing a history teacher who becomes President.
• Then he launched a real-life political party named after the TV show, won a landslide victory and became Ukraine's real President.
• When Russian troops flooded across the border, Zelensky refused Western offers to leave Kyiv. He has marshalled Ukraine's resistance and successfully obtained Western missile systems and anti-tank weapons.
• Buy the book to continue reading

About The Author

Product details.

• Publisher: Canbury Press (February 2, 2023)
• Length: 256 pages
• ISBN13: 9781914487064

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Volodymyr Zelensky in His Own Words

LIST PRICE $28.00

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Table of Contents

• Rave and Reviews

About The Book

Product details.

• Publisher: Pegasus Books (October 4, 2022)
• Length: 336 pages
• ISBN13: 9781639363148

Browse Related Books

• Political Science > World > Russian & Former Soviet Union
• Biography & Autobiography > Presidents & Heads of State

Raves and Reviews

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“Pleasant and thoroughly researched."

– Publishers Weekly

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"Exceptionally well researched, written, organized and presented, Rachel Maddow is an impressively informative biography and unreservedly recommended."

– Midwest Book Review

"Rogak creates a compelling biography. Rachel Maddow is an affectionate portrait of its subject."

– Philadelphia Gay News

“Including both humorous and serious insights from colleagues, Rogak presents a detailed picture of the Comedy Central show, revealing exhausting writing schedules, dogs in the office, and people who aren't particularly enamored with the host. An inside look at the man who changed the face of comedy talk shows.”

– Shelf Awareness

“Haunted Heart is a thoroughly respectful overview of King's life, and a great starter biography for new fans.”

– The Boston Globe

“The biographer is smart in sticking with the man himself. She looks at what scares King enough that he's been able to keep readers entertained for thirty years. Rogak does an admirable job pulling together materials from disparate sources into a readable whole.”

– Bangor Daily News

“Rogue has pieced together King's sometimes erratic life scrupulously into a clean, swift read.”

– The Times (London)

“Dogs jumping from airplanes, dogs sacrificing their lives to save their handlers, dogs patrolling dense tropical jungles?such heroics may seem the stuff of animation fantasy, but Lisa Rogak’s The Dogs of War documents the real-life valor of canine warriors. Rogak is to be commended for the book’s encyclopedic scope and rich historical detail.”

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– Steve Duno, author of Last Dog on the Hill

“Canine heroism is eloquently celebrated in Lisa Rogak's The Dogs of War.”

– Hudson Valley News

“Most of the accounts in this book will bring tears to your eyes.”

– The Macon Telegraph

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Ukraine Says It Foiled Russian Plot to Kill Zelensky

The Ukrainian security services arrested two Ukrainian colonels and accused them of spying for Russia. They said the plot also targeted top Ukrainian intelligence officials.

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By Constant Méheut and Maria Varenikova

Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine

Ukraine’s security services said on Tuesday that they had foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top military and political figures. Two Ukrainian colonels accused of participating in the plot have been arrested on suspicion of treason.

The Ukrainian domestic intelligence agency, the S.B.U., said in a statement that the plot had involved a network of agents — including the two colonels — that was run by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., the main successor to the K.G.B. According to the S.B.U., the agents working at Russia’s direction were tasked with identifying people close to Mr. Zelensky’s security detail who could take him hostage and later kill him.

The agency’s statement said the other top Ukrainian officials targeted in the plot included Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the S.B.U., and Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency. The Ukrainian claims could not be independently verified.

It is not the first time that Ukraine has reported a potential assassination attempt aimed at its top leaders. Mr. Zelensky said in an interview with an Italian television channel earlier this year that his security services had told him of more than 10 such efforts.

Ukraine’s security services offered few details about previous assassination plots. But this time, the agency went to some length in its statement to describe how the Ukrainian officials were to be killed.

The services said the two colonels accused in the plot belonged to the State Security Administration, which protects top officials. They had been recruited before the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to the statement, which identified three F.S.B. members — Maxim Mishustin, Dmytro Perlin and Oleksiy Kornev — as running the operation from Moscow. The two Ukrainian colonels were not named.

In a video released by the security services , a man identified as one of the colonels, his face blurred, describes details of the apparent plot that involved blocking Mr. Zelensky as he entered or left a building. The authenticity of the video could not be independently confirmed.

As for the assassination attempt aimed at General Budanov, the services said it was planned to take place before Orthodox Easter, which was celebrated on May 5. The F.S.B.’s network of agents in Ukraine was tasked with observing and passing on information about General Budanov’s whereabouts, the Ukrainian security services said.

Once his location had been confirmed and communicated, he would have been targeted in a multilayered attack involving a rocket strike, followed by a drone attack to kill people who were fleeing and then a second rocket strike, the security services said.

Weapons for the attack were provided to one of the colonels, including attack drones, ammunition for a rocket launcher and anti-personnel mines, according to the security services and Ukraine’s prosecutor general. The colonel was to pass the weapons to other agents to carry out the assault, the Ukrainian statement said.

Russia made no immediate comment about the Tuesday accusations.

The apparent assassination plot is just the latest in a series of attempted or successful attacks on Ukrainian figures.

General Budanov’s wife was poisoned late last year , according to the Ukrainian military intelligence agency, in an incident that led to widespread speculation that Russia was stepping up efforts to target Ukraine’s senior leadership. General Budanov said in February that it was difficult to say if the poisoning was an attempt to murder him, but he hinted that Russia was behind it.

Mr. Zelensky has also been the target of numerous assassination attempts, according to Ukraine’s security services. As recently as last month, the S.B.U. reported that it had arrested, in cooperation with Polish security services, a Polish man who it said had offered to spy for Russia as part of a plot to assassinate Mr. Zelensky.

Ukraine is also believed to have been involved in the killing of several pro-Kremlin voices in Russia. U.S. intelligence agencies believe that parts of the Ukrainian government authorized a car bombing that in 2022 killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist. And in December, a former Ukrainian lawmaker living near Moscow was assassinated by Ukrainian security service agents, according to a report by The Financial Times that cited two Ukrainian officials with direct knowledge of the incident.

Constant Méheut reports on the war in Ukraine, including battlefield developments, attacks on civilian centers and how the war is affecting its people. More about Constant Méheut

Maria Varenikova covers Ukraine and its war with Russia. More about Maria Varenikova

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

News and Analysis

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Kyiv, assuring him that American military aid is on its way  at a “challenging time” for the country.

As Moscow seeks more support for its war in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin of Russia will visit China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, testing their “no limits” partnership .

Putin replaced his minister of defense , Sergei Shoigu, with the economist Andrei Belousov , shaking up his national security team for the first time since his invasion of Ukraine.

Rebuilding Ukrainian Villages: The people of the Kherson region have slowly rebuilt their livelihoods since Ukraine’s military forced out Russian troops. Now they are bracing for another Russian attack .

Replenishing the Army’s Ranks: Ukraine’s Parliament passed a bill that will allow some convicts to serve in the military  in exchange for the possibility of parole at the end of their service.

Ukraine’s Unidentified Dead: Families of some Ukrainian soldiers say they have spent months trying to get official confirmation of their loved ones’ deaths , adding to their anguish.

How We Verify Our Reporting

Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions  to independently confirm troop movements and other details.

We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts .