One is a former KGB clinging to power for more than 20 years, hated by much of the world, the other an ex-comedian turned warlord and adored in the West.
Between Vladimir Putin, 70, and Volodymyr Zelensky, 45, the clash of armies is also that of two opposing figures.
“It is obvious that these are two fundamentally different types of leaders. One modern, young, informal, development-oriented. The other closed, archaic, authoritarian with complexes and crazy ideas”, asserts Russian political scientist Andrei Kolesnikov from the Carnegie Center told AFP.
Both were born in the same country: the USSR. But their 25-year age difference marks the break between two approaches to the world.
For Mr. Putin, a quest for power tinged with nostalgic revanchism. For Mr. Zelensky, openness to the West and modernity.
Since the entry of Russian troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, this principled opposition has become that of arms, in a fight resembling David against Goliath.
Invested in 2019, Mr. Zelensky — a former comedian — had no political experience other than his speaking out on social media.
A habit that followed him in wartime with well-rehearsed video speeches broadcast every evening, in which he gives hope to the Ukrainians and promises victory.
The features drawn by a year of fighting, dark circles, almost always dressed in a khaki t-shirt, the Ukrainian president has been transformed by the conflict, forging a national and international aura.
And he does not hesitate to regularly boost the morale of the troops on the front, as in December 2022 in Bakhmout, the epicenter of the fighting in the East.
For the Ukrainian political scientist Anatoli Oktysiouk, the master of the Kremlin had totally misjudged his counterpart.
“Putin treated him like a clown, a comedian, a buffoon. The invasion (…) is the result of having underestimated Zelensky, of his arrogance, of his lack of respect”, he says.
Away from the field unlike his opponent, Vladimir Putin has acquired the image of a recluse, essentially staying in the Kremlin for endless televised videoconferences with ministers and senior officials, accusing Ukraine of Nazism or threatening the West.
Because the Russian president avoids most public engagements.
He never approached the war zone, nor even participated in a soldier’s funeral, contrasting with the image of a strong man and tough guy that he had cultivated for years, between demonstration judo and bare-chested rides in the taiga.
Mutual incomprehension between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin has turned into hatred.
“For me, he is nobody”, launched at the end of January Mr. Zelensky about his counterpart.
On the sidelines of the Davos economic forum, he even raised the possibility that Mr. Putin was dead, implying that a look-alike could have been installed in his place.
“I can’t figure out if he’s really alive, if he’s making the decisions or someone else,” Mr Zelensky said, wearing a hoodie crossed out with the words ” I’m Ukrainian”.
Vladimir Putin is not to be outdone, treating Mr. Zelensky and his team of “clique of drug addicts and neo-Nazis” orchestrating a “genocide” of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine.
“Putin does not consider Zelensky to be the type of politician with whom he is ready to talk or negotiate. For him, Zelensky is a foreigner, they are incompatible”, underlines Andrei Kolesnikov.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett assured in early February that he had received Mr. Putin’s assurance, in the first days of the war, that he would not kill his Ukrainian counterpart.
Before the invasion, the two presidents had met in 2019 for a peace mediation for eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv forces were fighting pro-Russian separatists controlled by Moscow.
During this meeting in Paris, the newly elected Ukrainian president appeared in withdrawal compared to his counterpart, much more experienced, at the antipodes of the determination displayed by Mr. Zelensky today.
During a moment that made people talk, Mr. Putin, seated at the negotiating table, had ordered his Ukrainian counterpart to turn to the cameras, the latter executing immediately, all smiles.
In Moscow, it is another appearance of Mr. Zelensky which remained in the memories.
That of his number during a 2013 New Year’s show on Russian television.
In a suit and bow tie, Volodymyr Zelensky, then an actor, sings, dances and jokes there to the laughter and applause of the Russian cultural and media elite, the very one who insults him today. Another era.
24/02/2023 15:09:58 – Warsaw (AFP) © 2023 AFP