Olena Zekenska: ‘Ukrainians are paying for this with the lives of their compatriots’
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s if on cue, the wail of the air raid siren drifts via the sunshine as we pull up on the presidential complicated in Kyiv. Inside the bunker, the home windows are boarded up. Sandbags are wedged between marble columns. The compound and its inhabitants are poised and ready, together with the primary woman — Olena Zelenska.
“I would like to say, ‘I’m fine’ but no one can say this phrase now in Ukraine,” she states. “How are you?” The easiest of introductory questions that lands a bit limply below the circumstances. “We are all tense. We are all waiting for victory. We are trying, and I am also trying, to keep our hand on the pulse. To wait for good news and to not lose hope,” she provides, with a weary smile.
Weariness is maybe an apt phrase. It underpins her principal message — concern that as Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war grinds into its 18th bloody month, the worldwide neighborhood may start to lose curiosity within the battles chewing up Ukraine.
“If the aggressor wins now, it will be the worst-case scenario for all of humanity,” she says. “This will mean that global deterrents aren’t working. This will mean that anyone with power, strength and sufficient financial capacity can do whatever they want.
“We keep hearing from our Western partners that they will be with us as long as it takes. I would like to say that the word ‘long’ is not the word we should use. We should use the word ‘faster’.”
Olena Zelenska says her kids are bearing the brunt of their dad being president
/ Anton KulakowskiyZelenska, 45, has one of many trickiest jobs on the earth. Like so many ladies thrust right into a public highlight that she by no means sought, she faces unrelenting scrutiny. The former comedy scriptwriter turned first-lady-at-war can’t smile an excessive amount of, lest she be seen as not taking the devastation critically. But she will’t smile too little, or she is labelled ungrateful. Ukrainian diplomats inform me she is sort of all the time requested about being a mother-of-two, a spouse, a crutch-like appendage to her husband Volodymyr Zelensky, 45, over the work that she is doing on the bottom.
This ranges from constructing hospitals and prosthetic centres treating an estimated 20,000 new amputees to launching psychological well being programmes to smash the stigma surrounding trauma. We additionally speak about her newest ardour — altering the position of first men and women all over the world from particular person “decorative” equipment to one thing extra. She needs to “set a trend” the place presidential companions “communicate, exchange experiences, create joint projects”.
She speaks warmly about particular households that hold her motivated in her work — together with a Ukrainian grandmother who “knocked on every door” to search out her granddaughter who, like 1000’s of different kids, was feared to have been kidnapped and brought to Russia. “We are trying to get our children back. It is hard to find an area of children’s life that the war has not touched.”
That consists of the lives of her personal kids, who’re compelled to stay individually from their father for safety causes. All of it is a far cry from the lady who 4 years in the past stated she struggled with public talking after advising her husband, then a colleague of their comedy troupe, towards working for president. She has morphed right into a frontline ambassador, rallying worldwide assist for her nation.
Olena Zelenska in Ukraine’s presidential palace
/ Anton KulakowskiyZelenska may have left Ukraine, just like the wives of different Ukrainian politicians (below martial regulation solely ladies can go). She would have been forgiven for taking a step again to give attention to her kids however she didn’t.
Last July she addressed the US Congress, in November she spoke to the British parliament and in January she was at Davos. In Ukraine, she rallies the general public via her social media accounts, urging households to “stay strong”. And now right here, within the presidential palace the place her husband additionally works, she is eloquent and concise.
“I have to be effective in my role to support the president and the people of Ukraine. I hope they feel that I am”.
The cumulative penalties of those myriad crises in Ukraine are why she has determined to faucet her contacts and create her personal assist organisation. The Olena Zelenska Foundation was launched in September in New York with a visitor listing together with former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and actor Matt Damon.
“It seemed to me that just talking on international platforms is not enough for the first lady,” she continues. “I realised that I could put together this puzzle, unite those who want to help and those who need help.”
This is a part of her wider mission to redefine what it means for everybody married to a president. “We can no longer perform only a decorative function. First ladies and gentlemen can try harder and do more.” Despite being at battle, subsequent month she is going to host a 3rd “Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen” in Kyiv the place she is going to collect “her colleagues” in particular person and just about. This session will give attention to psychological well being.
Since Moscow’s forces marched throughout the borders on February 24 final 12 months, there was societal stress for everybody to have a stiff higher lip.
An unknown variety of folks have been killed. There may very well be considerably greater than 100,000 lacking folks, one Ukrainian prosecutor advised me in February. Horrific testimonies of torture and rape by the hands of Russian troopers have been documented.
Zelenska says the overall prosecutor’s workplace is investigating greater than 100 instances of sexual violence towards women and men, however the true variety of instances may very well be a whole lot of instances that. “The main problem is that people are afraid to speak about this, afraid of judgment, afraid of gossip,” she provides. “This is the most stigmatised crime of all the war crimes. It destroys families.” Children usually are not spared this torment. According to Ukraine, a minimum of 19,500 have been forcibly transferred to Russia, a quantity Zelenska tells me is a woefully low estimate — as authorities have documented “whole orphanages have been cleared out”.
Russia denies it has been abducting Ukrainian kids however Putin himself has an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. This, the primary woman says, sends a robust “symbolic” message that the world “considers Putin to be a criminal”.
So far, Ukraine has solely managed to retrieve 380 of the lacking kids, however Zelenska signifies there’s a new coalition of worldwide companions that may begin work on retrieving the remainder.
There are uncommon glad tales from these tragedies, which the primary woman says retains her going and motivated. She talks about assembly a lady from the jap Donetsk area who was taken to Russia after her mom, who had a army background, was captured by Russian troopers. The grandmother labored day and evening to search out her, ultimately enlisting the assistance of Ukraine’s high prosecutors. In the tip the lady was situated, the mom was exchanged in a prisoner swap and by some miracle they have been all reunited.
“Just imagine the tragedy of this family, not knowing where they all are for such a long time,” she says.
The Zelensky household has additionally been separated by this battle. And studying her face, it appears she is pondering partially about her personal kids as she speaks about this. For the primary month and a half of the battle, her husband couldn’t see his household at throughout concern for the protection of the youngsters. They nonetheless stay individually however can now a minimum of sporadically go to one another within the constructing the place we conduct the interview. It is simpler for her eldest, Oleksandra, 19, who’s sufficiently old to come back to the presidential workplace on her personal and see her father as she wants, Zelenska explains. Kyrylo, 10, “needs a father not just once or twice a week,” she says.
“I am sure that we will pass this test,” she provides, leaning ahead. “We all love each other and trust each other. We really hope that somehow all this will change, and we will be able to live a more or less normal family life.”
For a second, the non-public motivations for wanting the battle to finish peep via. There is a glimpse of an exhausted guardian simply wanting her household again collectively once more. And then she clicks again to talking about the remainder of Ukraine. For all households within the nation this is determined by victory, which in flip is determined by the worldwide neighborhood, she continues. Ukraine has “no other way out” than enduring. “It is a matter of survival. That’s why it’s so hard because it’s been going on for so long. That is why we need news that gives us hope.” And they need assistance to do this. The first woman is apprehensive that some nations have began to underestimate the specter of Russia as a result of it appears “so far away” and if Moscow wins, it should influence the world order.
“Ukrainians are paying for this with the lives of their compatriots, the rest of the world just pays with its resources,” she says. She has conferences to get to concerning the prosthetics centre she has helped construct. “Please don’t get fatigued, because we as Ukrainians have no right to get tired. Ukraine defends not only its interests, not only its existence, we are trying to maintain the entire democratic balance of the world.”
Bel Trew is the Independent’s chief worldwide correspondent