Zelensky and twelve assistants were given bulletproof vests and rifles, but some did not know how to use them. Mr Arestovych said: “It was an absolute madhouse. Automatically for everyone. The place was wide open. We did not even have concrete blocks to block the road.” He said the president’s wife and children were also still there as the Russians descended. Mr. Zelensky did not leave and the second night he went out to record a video to show the Ukrainian people that he had not escaped. The Ukrainian president himself told TIME: “You understand that they are watching. You are a symbol. You have to act the way the head of state should act.” In the first days of the invasion he got up before dawn and had his first meeting with his general at 5 in the morning. As the war progressed, he and his aides watched drone strikes on computer screens and cheered as Russian tanks were destroyed. In early March, he made a secret visit to the front line, according to the account. He is said to have taken only a small security team. Mr Arestovic said bodyguards had “lost their minds” about the danger and that many of Zelensky’s team learned only months later that he had done so. On another trip to the front line a few days later he ate soup within range of Russian snipers and artillery. Another adviser told the magazine that Zelensky was the “main” author of his speech. He works in a “Situation Room” with sandbags to close the windows and lights off. Ukrainian soldiers use ever-changing silly passwords to deter intruders. The old passwords reportedly included a “coffee cup suitor”. Mr Zelensky acknowledged that the situation had affected him. He told TIME: “I’m old with all this wisdom I never wanted. It is the wisdom associated with the number of people who have died and the torture inflicted by Russian soldiers. “To be honest, I never intended to acquire such knowledge.”
