INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS & SECURITY
At Kennedy School event, Zelenskyy recounts his personal transition into wartime leader
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, spoke with Harvard students about his unlikely path from TV star to Ukraine’s wartime president—and his country’s deadly conflict with Russia. Zelenskyy, appearing via satellite from Kyiv, drew a standing ovation from a lively audience of students packed into Harvard Kennedy School’s John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, with an overflow crowd in Wexner Café and commons. Zelenskyy said the key lesson that policymakers need to learn is that only a policy of determined prevention can avoid such conflicts; once the conflict starts, he said, it’s much harder to push back. Ukrainian students in the audience questioned him about the war, about his own evolution as a leader, and about how they could contribute. Afterwards, several students shared impressions of Zelenskyy and the example he is setting.
Also: Students from HKS and other schools held a vigil in Harvard Square to remember Ukrainians recovered from a mass grave in Izyum. |