Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a former popular actor, screenwriter, and producer of film and show business, entered politics almost by accident, winning the 2019 elections on the wave of success of his TV series “Servant of the People” and taking advantage of society’s fatigue with corruption in power and the military confrontation with pro-Russian separatists in Donbas. He promised voters that he would bring peace and prosperity to the country, but soon faced Vladimir Putin’s reluctance to give up his claims to interfere in the domestic politics of a neighboring state, and then, in February 2022, with Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. But the former showman was not afraid and did not flee abroad, as the Kremlin had hoped. Zelensky remained in Kyiv and led the resistance, managing to become a full-fledged leader of the warring country in just a few months.

Simon Shuster, an American journalist of Russian origin and correspondent for Time magazine, spent almost the entire year of 2022 with Zelensky’s team in Kyiv, enjoying the unique right of access to the presidential complex on Bankova Street. It was there that the idea for his book arose: to tell how the head of state and his entourage survived the first months of a full-scale war. The book includes both the significant events of that time — the battle for Kyiv, the tragedy in Bucha, the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kharkiv region, the liberation of Kherson — and what preceded them or remained outside the scope of combat reports.