ark circles under his eyes, his beard closely cropped and dressed ubiquitously in khaki, President Volodymyr Zelensky is the face of Ukraine's determination to expel Russian troops. 

War has proved transformative for the 44-year-old former comedian, catapulting him from embattled leader of a struggling European outlier to a global household name and standard-bearer of opposition to Russian leader Vladimir Putin. 

Yet his larger-than-life persona and seeming popularity could not have appeared more unlikely when the world rang in 2022.

As the champagne corks popped at New Year parties, Zelensky faced growing malaise at home. The novelty of a celebrity-turned-president was fading.

The electorate was struggling with living costs, corruption and fledgling social services. They were tiring of a populist who promised his presidency would be a panacea to the country's problems.

Fighting in the eastern Donbas region against Russian-backed separatists was worsening -- despite his vows to bring peace. His rivals sensed weakness. Doubts were growing in Kyiv that he was the right man for the job. 

Everything changed the moment that Putin ordered his army into Ukraine on February 24, hours after a bombastic fireworks display lit up the Kremlin. 

"Before the war many treated Ukraine as a failed state and Zelensky as a weak and not totally competent leader," said Volodymyr Fesenko, a Ukrainian political analyst.