Volodymyr Zelenskiy: ‘My White House invitation? I was told it’s being prepared’

The TV comic turned maverick Ukrainian leader on Putin, power and Trump's impeachment

What's the difference between playing a president on screen and being one in real life? Not much, according to Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the man who's done both.

"It's very similar," he says, his compact frame engulfed by a green leather armchair in his opulent presidential office. Then he changes his mind: in fact, the real job lasts a whole five years, and comes with far greater challenges than can fit into one season of a television show. "It's true there are more problems. They are catastrophic. They appear, I'm sorry to say, like pimples on an 18-year-old kid. You don't know where they will pop up, or when." The 42-year-old speaks in his native Russian, his expressive face switching from boyish amusement to tortured concern in a flash.