Putin went to war and made a hero of Volodymyr Zelensky

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, writes Marie Le Conte

This tide of swooning political opinion has already been criticised by high-minded people (Getty/iStock)

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.