This United League

In recent decades, the global battle for democracy has produced numerous brave, heroic leaders — Václav Havel in Czechoslovakia, Lech Wałęsa in Poland, Nelson Mandela in South Africa — who have overcome enormous odds to defeat dictators and lead their countries into freedom. Until this year, Ukraine had not produced such a leader.

It’s not that Ukraine fell to autocracy after gaining independence in 1991. Indeed, it became one of the freest and most competitive countries of the former Soviet Union. While post-Communist Russia has been led only by Boris Yeltsin and his chosen successor, Vladimir Putin, power in Kyiv has traded hands four times through open and democratic elections. Ukraine has hosted a healthy and contentious media, robust opposition, and strong protections for minority rights. Most recently, in 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky, a political outsider, defeated the presidential...