Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Volodymyr ZelenskyyREUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy was named TIME’s 2022 Person of the Year on Wednesday for his “success as a wartime leader has relied on the fact that courage is contagious.”

Zelenskyy was given the award along with the “Spirit of Ukraine” to mark the country’s defiance against Russia’s invasion.

"Zelenskyy's success as a wartime leader has relied on the fact that courage is contagious," TIME explained, referring to his refusal to leave Kyiv as it was under attack from Moscow. The act inspired Ukrainians to stand up to Russian aggression and gave him a reputation as a heroic figure.

"It spread through Ukraine's political leadership in the first days of the invasion, as everyone realized the President had stuck around," TIME said.

"His professional instincts derived from a lifetime as an actor on the stage meant he knew how to read a crowd and react to its moods and expectations... Now his audience was the world. He was determined not to let them down."

Other top contenders for TIME’s 2022 Person of the Year included Ron DeSantis, Liz Cheney, King Charles, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, protesters in Iran, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Elon Musk.

Musk was previously chosen as TIME Person of the Year in 2021. The reaction to the choice of Musk led to an angry response from Democrats, who accused TIME of being an “absolute disgrace,” according to Fox News.