Volodomyr Zelensky was elected President of Ukraine in 2010 with 73% of the vote. The main issue was confronting corruption.
Zelensky demonstrated broad appeal across the country, coming in first in all but one of Ukraine’s region losing to Poroshenko in the western region of Lvov). Zelensky is a native Russian speaker who also speaks Ukrainian, is of Jewish descent, and supports closer relations with the West. The election outcomes suggested that issues of ethnic and linguistic identity mattered less to voters than expected.