To MPs in London, he channelled Churchill and Shakespeare. To the US Congress, he evoked Pearl Harbor and 9/11. For the Bundestag it was the Berlin Wall; for Canada’s lawmakers, their large Ukrainian community. MEPs in Brussels were reminded of Ukraine’s place in the continent’s family of nations.
Each of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s addresses to western legislatures has contained historical references carefully chosen to appeal to the audience; each has been greeted with a standing ovation. If he found domestic fame as an actor and comedian, it is the Ukrainian president’s talent as an orator that has won him foreign acclaim.
