Zelensky’s Former Comedy Studio Hit in Russian Strike – But It’s the Symbolism Moscow Is After

When a Russian jet-powered drone strike destroyed a Kyiv warehouse used by the Kvartal 95 comedy studio on Wednesday, Sept. 16, twenty years of costumes, sets and props went up in flames. No studio employees were injured, but the symbolism is striking: Russia destroyed part of the physical archive of the career that took Volodymyr Zelensky from comedian to president.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The Illusion of Control Totalitarian rulers have long tried to weaken rivals by attacking their leaders and symbols – an impulse known since ancient Rome as damnatio memoriae. During World War II, Stalingrad showed the power of symbolism: the city had strategic value, but its name – honoring Joseph Stalin – gave its capture enormous propaganda importance for Hitler and its defense equal significance for Stalin. Compensation for Military Failure When Russia cannot achieve decisive victories on the battlefield, symbolic attacks become another way to project power at home. Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown and the city where his parents lived, has repeatedly been hit by Russian missile and drone strikes. This week, Zelensky told CBS News that Russian drones twice targeted his presidential aircraft during recent trips through Moldovan airspace. Hitting a leader’s hometown, threatening his aircraft, or destroying the physical remnants of his past allows Moscow to project its reach where it has failed to impose its will, despite staggering battlefield losses. Other Topics of Interest Zelensky Signs Law Targeting Scam Call Centers The legislation establishes separate criminal penalties for organized electronic fraud and bank-data theft. When Russia cannot break Ukraine on the battlefield, it goes after its symbols. Moscow’s Changing View of Zelensky For years, Russian state media and officials dismissed him as a former comedian who would crumble within days of Russia’s full-scale invasion. But as Russia’s so-called “special military operation” dragged into its fifth year, that narrative became harder to sustain. The irony is striking. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov now speaks of Zelensky not as a political footnote, but as a central figure in the West’s support for Ukraine. The man Moscow once dismissed has become the wartime leader of a country the Kremlin has failed to subdue – and one of its most persistent obsessions. Misunderstanding Where Ukraine’s Power Resides The strength of Kvartal 95 never lived in a warehouse of props, just as Ukraine’s resilience does not depend on a single building, aircraft, or city. Hours after the attack, the studio issued a statement that captured the country’s unyielding spirit: “Russian weapons can destroy property. But they cannot stop us,” the official Kvartal 95 statement read. “We continue to work, write new jokes, and help Ukrainian defenders. All scheduled concerts will take place. With props or without them... “Because laughter today is also about life. About life that continues despite everything.” By trying to burn Zelensky’s past or obliterate historic archives such as those at the Dovzhenko Studios, Putin is attempting a classic form of Soviet-style revisionism. What Moscow fails to understand is that you can vaporize decades of stage decor, but you cannot erase the history those props helped set in motion. Ukraine has long since outgrown Moscow’s script. Sevinj OsmanqiziSevinj Osmanqizi is an experienced journalist who writes extensively for Kyiv Post on foreign policy, international security and geopolitics. Based in Washington, D.C., her work focuses on Ukraine, Russia’s war and the broader post-Soviet space.