After Trump called Zelensky a “dictator” and began talks with Russia, even some of Zelensky’s harshest domestic critics have begun defending him.

The existential dilemma now for Ukraine is whether it even has the luxury of choice between its wartime president and its main military backer.

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky was a comedian with no political experience when he announced that he would be running in Ukraine's 2019 presidential election. Six years later, and he is now an embattled wartime leader and a symbol of Ukrainian defiance of Russian aggression.