It was hard not to notice the effervescence around the SAVA-UA textile company, between the police deployed at the crossroads and other men in khaki outfits posted in the vicinity. Yet, inside the factory on the outskirts of Kovel, in northwestern Ukraine, employees continued to work at their machines late on Tuesday morning, July 30, as if nothing was going on.

And then suddenly the presidential escort arrived, with several black vans and armored cars. Burly men from President Volodymyr Zelensky's security detail were the first to emerge and secured the area. The war-torn country's president sprang from one of the cars with an athletic stride, immediately heading towards those waiting for him, shaking hands as he went, with a few local figures, Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, and the plant manager, who all smiled at the president.

The visit began with a fast pace, the president being accompanied by a full escort and his close team: the head of the president's office, Andriy Yermak, nicknamed the "green cardinal" by malicious minds worried about his influence and always present at the leader's side, his speech writer Dmytro Lytvyn, and Oleksiy Kuleba, deputy head of the office.

This is how the president has spent his days since the Russian invasion began on February 24, 2022. In between his trips abroad and speeches at international summits, the former actor tours the country and speaks to Ukrainians, whether they are soldiers deployed on the front line or civilians relatively sheltered deeper inside the country. It's been almost 30 months since the war started, and faced with a drop in morale among some of the population, the leader is striving to project an image of invincibility and resilience. He himself is a reflection of the long war: Always wearing khaki, a beard, and his face increasingly hard and tired as the conflict goes on and ravages Ukraine.

Communication operations

A few hours before he arrived at the plant, Zelensky had begun his visit to the Volhynia and Rivne regions with a tour of the fortifications built on the border with Belarus, a neighboring dictatorship that is both a vassal and a supporter of the Russian-led war. The day before, he visited forward positions of Ukrainian special forces in the Kharkiv region to the east, the target of a Russian offensive a few months earlier, to decorate the soldiers.

Opinion polls may show a drop in popularity but Zelensky is greeted everywhere with smiles and respect. After two and a half years of invasion, he remains at the center of the country's news and dynamics, aided by intense communication operations. Every evening, he addresses the population, recounting his international conversations and the day's visits, while calling for resistance, strength and unity to achieve victory.

You have 47.69% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.