Olena Zelenska.Photo: GINTS IVUSKANS/AFP via Getty
“The enemy marked me as target No. 1, my family, as target No. 2,” Zelenskyy said Thursday, before reportedly turning down an opportunity from the U.S. to be evacuated from Kyiv, the Ukraine capital, amid Russia’s invasion of his country.
While Zelenskyy stands his ground, so does his wife, Olena Volodymyrivna Zelenska, who isreportedly also still in Ukraine— though the president declined to say where she and their two kids are weathering Russian attacks.
“I will not have panic and tears. I will be calm and confident. My children are looking at me. I will be next to them. And next to my husband. And with you,” Ukraine’s first lady said in anInstagram post on Friday.
Zelenska, 44, married her husband in 2003. The couple met at Kryvyi Rih National University, where she studied architecture and writing. They have two children, Oleksandra, 17, and 9-year-old Kyrylo.
Zelenska was “not too happy” when she learned of her husband’s political ambitions,she toldVogueUkrainein 2019.
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“I am a non-public person. But the new realities require their own rules, and I’m trying to comply with them,” she said then in an interview for the magazine’s cover story. “I can’t say that publicity or communication with the press is stressful for me. But I prefer staying backstage. My husband is always on the forefront, while I feel more comfortable in the shade. I am not the life of the party, I do not like to tell jokes. It’s not in my character.”
Zelenksa, who like her husband grew up in Kryvyi Rih (the two were reportedly schoolmates but didn’t meet until they attended the same university), toldVogue Ukraineshe was thoughtful in picking issues to highlight in her public role as Ukraine’s first lady.
“I am pleased when they ask me in New York or Paris who is the designer of my outfit. And they do ask me,” she said. “And it wouldn’t be as exciting to name a major Western brand, which they already know there, but how nice it is to promote Ukrainian designers to the world.”
Those trips, Zelenska added, were an opportunity for her to learn and gather information that she takes back with her to Ukraine.
“In Japan, for example, there is a nutritionist in every school that pays special attention to the nutrition of children with allergies, and the kitchens in schools are completely separated and sterile, like an operations room,” she said. “I sourced numerous ideas and became convinced that making positive changes is real, you just have to sincerely crave something, and work hard.”
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With her country now under attack, hundreds of people have already been reported dead or wounded, including more children.
But Zelenska is focusing on Ukrainians' resilience, as many take up arms to defend their country or seek protection underground from falling Russian munitions.
Though initially reluctant, Zelenska toldVogueUkrainein 2019 that she has found reasons to embrace the political spotlight.
“One of them is the opportunity to attract people’s attention to important social issues,” she said, though she remains protective of her family’s privacy. “At the same time, this does not concern the publicity of my children: I have not posted their photos on social networks before, and now I will not either.”
Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues after the country invaded on Thursday, with forces moving from the north, south and east.
“You don’t know where to go, where to run, who you have to call,” Liliya Marynchak, a 45-year-old teacher in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine,told PEOPLE recently of the moment her city was bombed.
“This is just panic,” she said.
Various countries have also pledged aid or military support to Ukraine as Zelenskyy pleaded for peace talks and urged his country to resist.
Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the interest of so-called “peacekeeping.”
“The prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine,” PresidentJoe Bidensaid as the invasion began in force.
source: people.com
