Saturday 6 August 2022 10:07 PM How Volodymyr Zelensky wooed the love of his life with a fib about a steamy ... trends now

The argument at an expensive Moscow restaurant in May 2014 had become so heated that staff had no option but to call the local police.

Diners at the well-heeled establishment had been disturbed by a very unlikely squabble.

A famous TV personality, whose career spanned two decades, was shouting across a table with such rage that his colleagues had to hold him back.

The irate celebrity in question, 36-year-old Ukrainian comedian-turned-actor Volodymyr Zelensky, was the star of a satirical comedy troupe that specialised in mocking both Russian and Ukrainian politics and society.

His adversary was his erstwhile Russian friend and co-star, Aleksey Chadov.

Their feud was political rather than professional, sparked in the febrile aftermath of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea.

But what was most surprising was that the war of words had been instigated by Zelensky. Visiting Moscow to film a sequel to his romantic comedy Eight First Dates, the star had always been careful never to be overtly partisan – let alone nationalist – and wisely used his satire to poke fun at both sides of the political divide.

But on that trip, Zelensky was tempted to cross the line when he saw the euphoria in Russia generated by Putin's propagandist slogan, disseminated via state media, which crowed, 'Crimea is Ours'.

He flew into arguments with any Russian friends who dared repeat the line – including, on this occasion, Chadov.

What action police took is not recorded. While it marked the end of the relationship between the two men, it would not be long before Zelensky's political awakening would turn him from TV clown into resolute wartime leader.

The only son of a mathematician and an engineer, Zelensky – known as Vova – moved from the south-eastern Ukrainian steel town of Kryvyi Rih to Mongolia in the early 1980s when his father took charge of a mining company.

But within four years, his mother Rymma had brought little Vova back to their spartan, Soviet-era apartment in Ukraine.

Kryvyi Rih was a tough place to grow up. Open-cast iron ore mines filled the air with a red dust that clung to the lips and turned rain puddles blood red.

It had a serious problem with youth gangs, whose senseless violence drew comparison to Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, and the city was also known as the 'Ukrainian Palermo', so firmly was it in the grip of the local mafia.

Zelensky was a bright pupil who wore a ring in his ear which, in a town like Kryvyi Rih, raised suspicions of homosexuality – an open invitation to the thugs. To avoid violence, it was best to have a girl on one's arm.

In Zelensky's case, one in particular had caught his eye. Olena Kiyashko was an attractive blonde who had known Zelensky from high school. One day she ran into him on the street while she was carrying a VHS of the film Basic Instinct.

'I've always wanted to see that!' Zelensky cried. 'Could I borrow it?'

It wasn't entirely honest. Film buff Zelensky had seen the erotic thriller starring Sharon Stone at least 15 times – but his quick-thinking ploy allowed him something far more valuable: the opportunity to ask for Olena's telephone number.

Olena – which means 'shining light' in Ukrainian – knew who Vova was. The lean, 5ft 7in-tall, dark-haired young man with the deep bass voice bore a resemblance to a young Al Pacino, even if his facial expressions were occasionally more like Mr Bean's.

He and his friends were local personalities, who always livened up school events and other festivities with their performances.

'I didn't think we would start dating,' Olena later recalled. 'Those boys were always surrounded by the prettiest girls.'

Their relationship had a rather stuttering start, and Olena broke it off early on as she 'had romantic feelings for someone else'.

Zelensky, putting his charm and tenacity to the ultimate test, called Olena up for 'a very serious talk'.

'I told him I had other plans and that we had to go our separate ways,' she recalled. 'But then he said a few things that got me thinking about what I would be missing out on. Once he's set his mind on something, he never lets go.'

What so impressed Olena was that Zelensky dreamed big.

He wanted foreign travel, and to study at Moscow's famous MGIMO diplomatic academy, alma mater of Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. But the bribe needed to gain admission was far beyond anything Zelensky could afford.

In the end, and to avoid military service, he enrolled on a law degree in their home town, and it was this decision that ultimately set him on his path to showbiz.

During his first year, he assembled a group of school friends to form a comedy troupe – Kvartal 95, named after their neighbourhood – to appear on KVN, a TV comedy show and competition.

KVN, the 'Club for the Joyful and Inventive', was a Russian institution on the lines of Britain's Got Talent. The competitors were given no payment – not even travel or accommodation expenses. The team took their own food on tour and prepared instant noodles in their hotel rooms.

But with their mix of irreverent sketches, jokes and songs, Kvartal 95 soon became a hugely successful fixture on the show – and with Zelensky its undisputed star.

When Zelensky and Olena were married in September 2003, the reception was held at the only venue they could afford that could hold 100 guests – a bowling club in Kryvyi Rih. The newlyweds shared a one-bedroom Kyiv apartment with two of his comedy partners, brothers Boris and Serhiy Shefir, their mother and a dog.

Zelensky drove the Shefir brothers to meetings in his rundown Lada estate, always parking out of sight. ('I couldn't present myself to serious companies with such a disgraceful car,' he recalled.)

Kvartal 95 got its first big break – its own series on the Kyiv TV station 1+1 – at a fortuitous moment. In 2004, the country was ripe for political satire amid Ukraine's Orange Revolution, when a rigged presidential election had pitted two main candidates against each other: the sitting prime minister Viktor Yanukovych, and his opponent Viktor Yushchenko, who pledged to end the corruption and cronyism that had plagued the pro-Putin regime.