On January 25, 2026, Volodymyr Zelensky is 48 years old. The birthday of the President of a country that has been paying for freedom with blood for the fourth year.

We do not know if he sometimes asks himself: “Why did I even get involved in this?” — Today, Volodymyr Zelensky is 48 years old. The birthday of the President of a country that has been paying for freedom with blood for four years now.

In his “past life”, he was a successful and accomplished person.
Career, recognition, money, freedom of choice. A life where there was always a way out.

He did not come into politics out of desperation.
This choice was made voluntarily — still in peacetime.
And back then, no one knew what exactly it would turn into.

Today, it is already a different reality.
The choice made in peaceful life has to be carried in the conditions of a war for the country.
Responsibility has ceased to be abstract and has become daily — for the front, for the people, for the future that cannot be postponed “for later”.

We do not know if he sometimes asks himself:
“Why did I even get involved in this?”
Whether he regrets it. Whether he doubts.
We do not know this — and perhaps we will never know.

But we know something else.

At the beginning of the war, when he was expected to flee, remain silent, or be formally present, he stayed.
Not as an image. Not as a slogan.
But as a person who physically did not leave at the most critical moment.

Then he became the embodiment of the courage of the Ukrainian people.
And this did not remain only in the past.
Throughout the war — and now — this role has not disappeared.

Yes, he traveled around the world.
Yes, he constantly flew, spoke, persuaded, pressured, asked, and demanded.
In the first months of the war, this was part of the country’s survival — so that Ukraine would not be “turned over,” left alone, or written off as another conflict.

Both before the war and during the war, he is constantly criticized — for “mistakes,” for decisions, for what could have been done differently.
The cost of these decisions is enormous, and that is why the criticism is loud.
But almost always it comes from a safe position — from those who did not have to make decisions at the same point of pressure.

It’s easy to argue about how “it should have been done right.”
It’s easy to say that “it could have been better.”
But would these people want to be in that point where there are no right decisions — only bad and even worse ones?

All “better” and “more correct” often exist only in the realm of alternative fiction.
In reality, there is no “replay” button.
There is only how it is — and the responsibility for this “how it is.”

Today, the pressure is no less than at the beginning of the war.
It’s just different.
It’s the pressure of expectations — inside the country and beyond its borders.
The pressure of decisions for which living people then pay.
The pressure of a war that lasts longer than anyone wanted to admit.

Every word — under a microscope.
Every step — between the front, allies, and reality.
Responsibility — without pause and without the right to rest.

He did not become the perfect leader.
He became real — in a situation where perfect solutions do not exist.

This war is not about one person.
But leadership matters. And enduring this time is also a choice.

Happy birthday, Mr. President.
Ukraine stands. And that is a fact.

NAnews‼️:- news of Israel