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Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa receives Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the People's Palace in Damascus, Syria, on April 5, 2026.
Photo by Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto

It’s hard to think of two world leaders with more unlikely life paths than Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comedian who played a president on TV only to become the actual president of a country under assault from a nuclear superpower, and Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda jihadist who toppled the Assad regime and now jet-sets to Western capitals, shoots hoops with US generals, and spits game at prime time news hosts.