Mutual friends and borrowed cars - how Ukraine's would-be leader is linked to tycoon

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian presidential candidate and comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks with journalists before undergoing a drugs and alcohol test, which is a precondition to participate in a policy debate ahead of the second round of a presidential election, outside a hospital in Kiev, Ukraine April 5, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo

KIEV (Reuters) - Volodymyr Zelenskiy, front runner to be the next Ukrainian president, has connections to one of the country's wealthiest tycoons that are undermining his image as an insurgent who will sweep aside the powerful moneyed elite.

Presenting himself as an anti-establishment outsider backed by spontaneous grass-roots support, Zelenskiy won the first round of voting last month, and opinion polls make him strong favourite in the run-off on April 21 against the incumbent president, Petro Poroshenko.