The 41-year-old comedian and star of a TV show in which he plays the Ukrainian president had a surprisingly easy victory over incumbent Petro Poroshenko, winning 73 percent of the vote. He further dispensed with tradition before and during his inauguration. He walked to the ceremony, rather than riding in a motorcade. He high-fived several people along the way and stopped to take a selfie with one of them. He dissolved the country's parliament, the Supreme Rada, and called a snap election, supplanting the one already scheduled to take place in October.

In his inaugural address, Zelenskiy pledged to bring peace to the eastern part of his country, which has been at war for five years, since Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, following a popular uprising that removed from power then-President Viktor Yanukovich. Zelenskiy spoke in Russian at this point in his address. He also urged his fellow Ukrainians to learn to live together despite their differences.

Zelenskiy is a political novice who is perhaps most well-known for his role as the Ukrainian president in the TV show Servant of the People. The main character, Vasyl Holoborodko, begins as a schoolteacher with no political experience but emerges as a strong national leader. The show has been on the air for nearly four years and routinely garners an audience of half of the country's population of 42 million.