As scholars watch the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they see similarities between Ukraine President Volodymry Zelenskyy and former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Churchill held the position 1940-45 during the end of World War II. He gave his Sinews of Peace speech, also called the Iron Curtain speech, at Westminster College in March 1946.
In recognition of the event and the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, America's National Churchill Museum hosted a webcast Saturday to discuss how the Iron Curtain speech relates to current events.
According to the International Churchill Society, some historians date the beginning of the Cold War with the Iron Curtain speech.
While his speech focused on the might of democracy, it also touched on the tenuous relationship the with Soviet Russia and a cautious acceptance of Russia while still speaking against communism.
As part of Saturday's webcast, Chief Curator of America's National Churchill Museum Timothy Riley and retired U.S. Army Col. Jeff McClausland talked about similarities between how Zelenskyy is responding to Russia's recent invasion and Churchill's philosophy during WWII.
McClausland said he thinks Zelenskyy is responding to the situation admirably and "far beyond people's expectations."
"Many people in the 1930s made fun of Churchill," he said. "They would argue Churchill in the 1930s, days he called 'being in the wilderness,' and said that he'd been a failure. But obviously, miraculously, he comes around in the 1940s and believed in the British people at an unbelievably difficult moment."
Similarly, he said, Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 and formerly worked as an actor and comedian, which made some people take him less seriously as a political leader.
However, his response to offers from other nations for asylum and a route out of Ukraine is reminiscent of Churchill's reaction to Germany bombing London, McClausland said.
"As I recall, (Zelenskyy's) public opinion polls in Ukraine weren't all that terribly high, but now they are off the charts," he said. "Think about Churchill walking the streets of London during the Blitz, talking to the common man, exposing himself to danger as he did insist that he stay in London."
Zelenskyy's response to an offer from the U.S. to get him out of Kyiv was, "I need ammunition, not a ride," according to a Feb. 25 Associated Press article.
The webcast is available on the America's National Churchill Museum YouTube channel. Russia's relationship with China, current parallels to WWII and the Cold War, and Russian President Vladimir Putin's views on democratic values in the context of Churchill's Iron Curtain speech were also discussed.