Europe Crowns Zelenskiy Its New Charlemagne.

The article focuses on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the Ukrainian people receiving the Charlemagne Prize, an award established in 1949 to honor contributions to European unification. Named after Charlemagne, the medieval ruler known as the "Father of Europe," the prize symbolizes European integration despite Charlemagne's complex legacy of conquest and forced conversions. The article highlights how Zelenskiy and Ukraine's resistance against Russian aggression underscores the ongoing defense of European values and the EU's identity as a peace project forged amid conflict. It also notes the EU's historical ambivalence toward hard power and the contemporary challenges it faces in global politics.