\n
I had first seen first-hand his capacity as a communicator when he addressed Parliament in Westminster about 18 months ago.<\/p>\n
I was to see it again, one on one, in my conversation with him now.<\/p>\n
He speaks very good English, but in longer interviews (we spoke for around 40 minutes) he often answers in Ukrainian, particularly if he feels it important to be precise in his choice of language.<\/p>\n
So we spoke through interpreters, apart from the moments when he relished switching into English.<\/p>\n
I challenged him on the corruption that seems embedded if not endemic at senior levels of Ukrainian society.<\/p>\n
He said the fact we knew about it \u2013 and people had lost their jobs because of it \u2013 showed it was something Kyiv took seriously.<\/p>\n
He was sanguine about the prospect of getting to know yet another British prime minister \u2013 Sir Keir Starmer is his fourth in the two and a half years since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Sanguine because, he said, the UK had remained steadfast and consistent in its support for him, despite the domestic political turbulence.<\/p>\n
A week ago Sir Keir \u2013 on his first overseas visit as prime minister \u2013 had been in the room at the Nato summit in Washington when US President Joe Biden had managed to muddle up President Zelensky with President Putin of all people, with the Ukrainian president standing just yards away.<\/p>\n
I was just down the corridor waiting for Sir Keir\u2019s news conference, in which President Biden\u2019s jaw-dropping gaffe dominated. The prime minister, just like Ukraine\u2019s leader, sought to play it down as just one of those things.<\/p>\n
But President Zelensky\u2019s take on Donald Trump\u2019s outlook on Ukraine was more spiky \u2013 and in English.<\/p>\n
He also acknowledged that a return of all Ukrainian land was not necessarily a pre-condition for the fighting to end, as far as he saw it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean that all territories are won back by force,\u201d he said. Let\u2019s see what reaction those remarks provoke.<\/p>\n
For now the war rages on, tens of thousands of lives lost, millions of people displaced, billions of pounds spent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe time to stand up for freedom and democracy is now and the place is Ukraine,\u201d Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had told me earlier.<\/p>\n
A message for ears in Moscow, Washington and beyond as the war rages on \u2013 and Volodomyr Zelensky continues to make his case for your support to win it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/240\/cpsprodpb\/3f3f\/live\/6ae5ffc0-4590-11ef-9682-7da32830974b.png.webp)
<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n