The Zelensky Story

Episode
Episode Three - War Leader
Broadcast Info
2024 (59 mins)
Description
As the comprehensive three-part series draws to a close, President Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska open up about the realities of living through war. As the couple recall the dramatic changes to their lives since the Russian invasion, Zelensky’s charisma and humour endures - he jokes that in the making of this documentary, Series Director Michael Waldman has spent more time with Olena than he has. The concluding episode opens in the first hours of the Russian invasion. Zelensky, Olena Zelenska, and their inner circle reveal what happened. Olena describes how she and their children left Kyiv, saying ‘We didn’t know if we’d ever see him again.' Featuring extraordinary footage of Zelensky’s call with Emmanuel Macron on the first day of the war, Zelensky tells the French president about the scale of the Russian invasion and the danger he himself faces. Zelensky’s capacity to communicate with his people helps to spark a fierce fightback. The episode explores how Zelensky used the skills he’d honed as an entertainer to galvanise people. When the West is slow to send support, Zelensky takes matters into his own hands speaking to people and parliaments around the world to secure sustained help. Meanwhile, the film takes viewers inside Ukraine’s peace negotiations with Russia. Zelensky’s lead negotiator gives dramatic first-hand testimony of what it was like to deal with the Russians. The negotiations are ended after Russian atrocities come to light in places like Bucha, which Zelensky visits a few days after it is liberated. The Ukrainians succeed in fighting Russia out of the Kyiv region - and Zelensky’s wife talks about the moment she and the children were re-united with her husband. Yet the longer the war goes on, the harder it becomes for the Ukrainian president. Zelensky talks about the challenges of leading a country at war, and the ultimate difficulty of having to send people to their probable deaths.
Genre
History; Politics; Government

How to cite this record

The Open University, "The Zelensky Story". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/250834 (Accessed 05 Aug 2025)