What to know about Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s TV president turned wartime leader

Just a few years ago, Volodymyr Zelensky was playing Ukraine’s president on television. Now, he’s a real-life wartime leader directing his outgunned country in its fight against the Russian invasion.

Though Zelensky says he has become the Kremlin's "target No. 1," he has earned the respect of much of the Ukrainian public by refusing to flee the capital. Instead he has walked the streets of Kyiv and urged Ukrainians to resist, while crafting a successful communications strategy that has won the hearts and minds of European leaders and voters.

While acknowledging that Moscow has vastly superior forces it has not yet deployed, Western officials say Zelensky's leadership has firmed up Ukrainian resolve. Here's what you need to know about the president.

Zelensky, 44, is a former comedian, television personality and actor — and now Ukraine’s head of state. He was born in the city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine and raised in an “ordinary Soviet Jewish family,” he has said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has attempted to justify his invasion of Ukraine as a "denazification" operation, but Zelensky is Jewish and many of his relatives were killed by Nazis during the Holocaust. His grandfather was the only one of four brothers to survive the German occupation of Ukraine.

Zelensky was elected president on April 21, 2019, and sworn in about a month later. He first gained broad attention in the United States after President Donald Trump involved him in what would later become the first of Trump’s two impeachments.

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Following Zelensky's inauguration, Trump administration officials had dangled the possibility of an Oval Office meeting between Trump and Zelensky on the condition that Ukraine launch a corruption investigation into Hunter Biden, the son of political rival Joe Biden, then a presidential candidate.

In a July 25, 2019, phone call, Trump told Zelensky: "I would like you to do us a favor." The request became a memorable quote in Trump's impeachment trial.

Days before the phone call, Trump had ordered nearly $400 million in military aid for Ukraine to be withheld. The funds were released almost two months later.

Before running for president, Zelensky was a popular face in Ukrainian entertainment. He hosted a comedy show, “Liga Smeha” (“League of Laughter”), and won Ukraine’s “Dancing With the Stars” in 2006. He also voiced the titular cartoon bear in the Ukrainian version of “Paddington.”

Zelensky also helped create the multimillion-dollar production company Studio Kvartal 95.

Arguably his most consequential acting role was on the show "Servant of the People" as Vasyl Holoborodko, a teacher whose impassioned speech about corruption in Ukrainian politics goes viral, catapulting him to the presidency.

Then TV became reality: With the country's deeply entrenched corruption a key theme in the 2019 election, Zelensky decided to make a real-life run for the top office.

"People want to see a president like [Vasyl Holoborodko], with the same moral values," Zelensky said before the election. "They're fed up with the establishment. People want something new."

Zelensky has overseen the name changes of Soviet-era monuments and street names to honor Ukrainian heroes.

» READ MORE: Russia-Ukraine live updates

And while he has become a hero of sorts to the Ukrainian public in the days since the Russian invasion began, his popularity as president had appeared to be waning. He had been criticized for not pushing anticorruption reforms, as he had touted during his campaign, and some Ukrainians felt he was too weak and compromising with Putin.

Before he was elected, he said in an interview with Vice News that he wanted to end the conflict in the eastern Donbas region, "because we don't want our people to perish anymore." The conflict in Donbas, where Russian-backed separatists have been battling with the Ukrainian government, played a key role in the Russian invasion. Days before invading, Putin formally recognized the independence of two separatist areas in the region, where he has baselessly claimed that a "genocide" against Russian speakers was taking place. (Zelensky also speaks Russian.)

Although Zelensky has claimed that Moscow is targeting him for assassination to “destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state,” he has not backed down. In the days since the invasion began, he has walked the capital’s streets, filming himself in videos urging the Ukrainian people to resist the Russian invasion. His calls appear to be working, with the United States and Britain reporting that Moscow is facing stronger resistance in Ukraine than it had anticipated.

Zelensky's family is Russia's "target No. 2," he has said. In a meeting with CIA Director William J. Burns in January, Zelensky asked whether he or his family were in danger amid growing concerns of Russian aggression. He was initially skeptical that the Russians would try to kill him.

For security reasons, he has not disclosed the location of his family — his wife and two children — though they are believed to be near him. “My children are looking at me, I will be next to them and next to my husband and with you,” first lady Olena Zelenska wrote on Instagram last week.