Late in the evening on Friday, a short man, wearing a khaki, went out into the open air in central Kiev wearing a selfie.
Behind him stood four other men, also in khaki.
These were President Volodymyr Zalansky and four senior members of the Ukrainian leadership.
"Good evening to all," Zalansky said, gesturing to those behind him: "The faction chairman here, the president's chief here, the prime minister here, (the adviser) Podoliac here, and the president here.
We are all here, our army here, our citizens here and we are all defending our independence, our country, and so it will be in the future.
Glory to our warriors, glory to our warriors.
Glory to Ukraine! "." To the heroes of glory! ", The four answered behind him, as usual.
This video, which lasted 32 seconds, seemed to fold within it the growth of Zelsanki as the leader of his nation, fighting against all odds the neighboring power that had invaded its territory.
Zalansky, who was elected president in 2019 after a glorious career as a screenwriter, comedian and actor with zero political experience, has in recent days been seen growing into a national hero.
The man, who only a few years ago in a popular series a teacher who was almost accidentally elected president, grew into the enormous shoes of the job - and of the moment his country is in.
He comes up for regular updates every few hours, updates the situation on the ground in short sentences, does not beautify the situation and talks about the dead, but does not stop praising the fighting spirit of the army, national guard, police, border guard and civilians themselves.
He delivers the speeches in Ukrainian, but time and time again switches to Russian, addresses Russian society and its leadership to stop the unnecessary war, and thanks for supporting the many demonstrators in favor of Ukraine, tells of Russian soldiers who just fell, not even knowing where they were going.
President of Ukraine with top government officials, Photo: Reuters
But the selfie with senior officials of the country, in the gloomy outdoors of Kiev, further embodied the huge gap between Volodymyr Zalansky, the Ukrainian Jew in every way, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Who baptized the historic Ross in Christianity in 978 - but two personalities separated by a political, image and personal chasm.
While Zalansky delivered sharp topical speeches on the situation, Putin spent the audience's time in lengthy and mostly amateur lectures on Ukraine's history (as he sees it), effectively denying her the right to independence.
While Zalansky delivers his speeches standing, before the war in a suit and next to the flag, and now at a khaki-colored stand and T-shirt, Putin declared the "special operation" and justified it by sitting behind the table, his fingers sometimes drumming on him nervously;
And while Zalansky took a selfie with his close colleagues, Putin was recently seen with his colleagues in the same horror play at the Russian Security Council, where Moscow officials were called into a microphone to declare their support for the war.
Putin, by the way, was sitting at that time - and a huge distance from them.
It was only in these 32 seconds that Zalanski & Co. spoke to the defended besieged nation was able to fully illustrate the difference between a democratically elected leader, one who maintains direct contact with the citizens, and an autocrat who declares war alone in his office.
Between a socially networked leader and connected to his or her audience, and a president who does not even use the Internet, and receives the information printed in folders.
Vladimir Putin, Photo: AFP
There is one president here who in times of peace is far from free of errors and populism, but now unites an entire nation behind him;
And another president, who has long been elevated by propaganda in his country to the rank of demigod, and now reveals (unless hidden from him) that across Russia thousands were arrested in demonstrations against him and against the war, and hundreds of thousands signed a petition against it.
Two heroes, one of whom reaches 33 percent support in peacetime - an astronomical rate, in the political structure of Ukraine - and the other "wins" time and time again in "elections" with 70 percent support rates.
And if we move away from the immediate, the selfie video in particular and Zalanski's open behavior in his reports in general, are also a kind of illustration of the pro-European orientation in Ukraine, which has both deep roots in Ukraine's political tradition (as opposed to Moscow) and in the political present, certainly since 2014.
The vast majority of Ukrainians want the West, objects to elections, democracy and openness - and the growing denial of these values in Russia only charges their passion.
Whatever the end result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, these gaps between Ukraine and the Ukrainians (and many in the Russian public) and the regime in the Kremlin will not be forgotten.
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