‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Mathew 5:6)

Ukraine’s 44-year-old president has lived one of the more extraordinary lives of modern times - one that is sure to spawn a plethora of movies. This would be ‘art imitating life’. But weirdly Zelensky’s political career is a rare example of ‘life imitating art’. In 2015 his company Kvartal-95 started production of a three-season television series, Servant of the People in which Zelenskyy played the role of Ukrainian president.

Before this 3-season show terminated, Zelensky launched a political party called - Servant of the People Party - with himself at its head. Starting as a rank outsider and laughing stock, Zelensky became the real president of Ukraine in 2019, winning 73 percent of the vote on an anti-corruption platform. It was a certainly a step up from life as a travelling comic who moved on to star in comedy films and as a voice actor for Ukraine’s version of Paddington Bear.

Zelensky’s rallying cry was ‘I am not a politician. I am just a simple person who has come to break down this system’ – a winning formula in a country that ranks 122 out of 188 in Transparency International’s Perception Corruption Index.

The cleanliness of Zelinsky’s presidency did not survive contact with reality. While Zelinsky sought to reign in the power of Ukraine’s oligarchs by banning them from participation in privatisations and attacking their grip on the country’s media, his moral authority was undermined by an avalanche of corruption allegations against him.

Leaked Pandora papers revealed that Zelinsky and his associates held hidden assets in a network of foreign companies registered in Cyprus, Belize and the British Virgin Islands. More damaging still were allegations of money laundering of US$41m for Ukraine’s second richest oligarch, Igor Komoiskyi. This financier, like Zelensky a Jewish native of Dnipro oblast, is now wanted worldwide for looting an estimated US$5.5bn from Ukraine’s largest retail institution, PrivatBank.

It was not a good look to a Ukrainian media controlled by rival oligarchs. Even though Zelensky sought to disassociate himself from his former backer, by the end of 2021 Zelensky’s reputation was in tatters. His polling popularity had fallen to just 31 percent. But that was before his greatest role as war leader – this time it called for a performance on a world stage. Within weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 3 February, Zelensky’s popularity surged to 86 percent.

Zelensky’s performance has been pitch-perfect. The scripts have been Churchillian. ‘Our weapons are our truth, and our truth lies in the fact that this is our land, this is our country, our children, and we are going to defend all of this... Glory to Ukraine!’ Production values, no doubt organised by members of his Kvartal 95 company have been superb. Did his wardrobe department come up with the unshaven face and green ‘combat chic’ look that has become globally so fashionable? Brilliant. It has become a global fashion staple. Even President Macron has on occasions adopted the ‘hoody’ and pas rasé vibe.

Zelensky’s performance as war leader, may not have won him a Oscar but he was the biggest winner of the awards night. Hollywood duly wrapped itself in the Ukrainian flag. Stars such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Jamie Lee Curtis, Samuel L. Jackson and Tyler Perry sported pins and ribbons. Uniquely the Academy called 'to have a moment of silence to show our support for the people of Ukraine currently facing invasion’. Hollywood is never slow to piggy-back on the latest popular cause. The Grammy awards went one better by granting Zelensky a virtual appearance in a combat green teeshirt.

Zelinsky’s perceived heroics, his refusal to quit Kiev for safer refuge was decisive in getting the West’s full financial and military commitment. A supposedly fractured NATO unified and rallied behind Ukraine’s heroic war leader.

As well as the basics - bullets, guns, body armour etc. – the west has provided Ukraine with a cornucopia of advanced weaponry to repel Russia’s invasion; HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, M777 and PzH 2000 howitzers, Zuzana and Krab self-propelled artillery, Javelin antitank missiles, anti-aircraft stingers, and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. Short range Switchblade ‘loiter’ drones as well as longer range rearmable drones are in the pipeline; Ukrainian demands include 500 tanks; 2,000 armoured vehicles; 1,000 drones’ as well F-18 fighters.

Thus far more than US$62bn (just US$9bn from Europe) has been committed to Ukraine. This does not include ‘soft’ contributions such as the UK’s commitment to train 10,000 Ukrainian troops or Elon Musk’s low-orbit Starlink satellites and his cutely named ‘Dishy McFlatface’ internet terminals. When Putin complains that Russia is fighting a proxy war against the west, he is factually correct. Thanks to Zelensky the Ukrainian army has been armed to win.

With Zelenskyy’s forces now sweeping all before them to the east of Karkiv in the north and threatening to cut off Russian forces embedded around Kherson in the south, Putin faces the prospect of complete military collapse. The Russian army, depleted of a high proportion of its equipment, experienced officers, and men, looks shot. As former CIA director General Petraeus has concluded, the ‘battlefield reality he [Putin] faces is irreversible’. Neutrals such as Turkey and India have turned against him. Even his own media and government officials are increasingly hostile to the war and its conduct.

As the Russian army retreats Putin’s reaction has been to double down on the legitimacy of his invasion. A partial mobilisation of 300,000 ‘reservists’ has been followed by fake referendums to give authority for Russia’s formal annexation of Ukraine’s border oblasts, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. These are actions made more ominous by Putin’s deliberately obscure threat to use ‘all means’ to defend the ‘territorial integrity’ of the Russian-occupied lands, including presumably the newly annexed Ukrainian oblasts. The fact that Putin has referenced America’s use of the atom bomb at Hiroshima makes clear the nature of his veiled threat which he has declared ‘is not a bluff.’

Given the thrill of Ukraine’s autumn victories, the temptation now for Zelensky is to go for broke and roll back the Russian positions to their pre-2014 boundaries – including Crimea and the breakaway parts of Lugansk and Donetsk included. Thus far Zelensky response to Putin’s veiled nuclear threats has been confusing. He assured Bild TV, ‘I don’t believe that he will use these weapons,’ but then said that he did not believe ‘that the world will allow him to use these weapons.’ How exactly the world would do that was not explained. By a pre-emptive NATO attack? Indeed, another confusing Zelensky statement, seemingly calling for NATO to make ‘pre-emptive strikes’, was immediately reversed ‘à la Biden’ by Zelensky’s spokesperson Serhii Nykyforov.

The intimations back in April that Zelensky would be prepared to meet Putin and negotiate a peace based on guaranteed Ukrainian neutrality have evaporated. Reparations of US$110bn are now demanded for war damages. Who can blame Zelensky for his ‘ultra’ position? Apocalyptic destruction and revelations of ghastly atrocities in Bucha and Izyum have reinforced the righteousness of the Ukrainian cause. Underlining the hardening of Zelensky’s position, he has now signed a legal decree which formally confirms ‘the impossibility of holding negotiations with… Vladimir Putin.’ The implication is clear; for Zelinsky peace will only be possible if there is regime change in Moscow. Many suspect that regime change is also desired by Washington.

However, there is a problem with Zelensky’s new hard-line position. Russia has nuclear weapons – in extremis, it is viewed that Putin will likely use them. The aggressive rhetoric coming out of Kiev and Washington suggests that neither the west nor Putin will back down. Speaking to ABC News General Petraeus asserted that, if nukes were used, NATO ‘would take out every Russian conventional force that we can… identify on the battlefield… and every ship in the Black Sea.’

In this eventuality, for the first time in history, two nuclear powered adversaries would be joined in conventional battle. At a recent fundraiser Biden warned of ‘Armageddon’ because Putin was not joking when he talked ‘about the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons.’ However as has become the norm, Biden’s spokesman walked back on this alarmist statement. Nevertheless, the signs of a dangerous brinkmanship are there for all to see. We can see it in the escalation implicit in this week’s blowing up of Russia’s bridge to Crimea bridge and Putin’s cruel response, the devasting attacks on civilian targets throughout Ukraine.

God help us! One can only hope that there are moderate voices behind the ‘who blinks first’ gamesmanship of the neurologically impaired Joe Biden, the pyschopathic dictator Vladimir Putin and the comedian turned war leader Volodymyr Zelensky. There are reasons why countries want nukes. You don’t mess with them. Brinkmanship with nukes invites civilisational suicide. And that’s the problem with Zelensky’s righteousness. There is no point being in the right if you are dead.