Ukraine’s first girl, Olena Zelenska, says the struggle with Russia has not modified her husband however solely revealed to the world his dedication to prevail and the truth that he’s a person you’ll be able to depend on.
Zelenska, in an interview revealed Friday within the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, additionally mentioned she has not seen her husband, 44-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, since Russia invaded Ukraine.
When Zelenska wakened on Feb. 24, the day the struggle started, her husband was already awake and dressed. He instructed her merely: “It’s started,” and left for the workplace in Kyiv, she recalled.
“Since Feb. 24, I have been seeing my husband just like you — on TV and on the video recordings of his speeches,” she mentioned.
Zelenska mentioned the couple’s two kids had been together with her however she didn’t disclose their location.
She accused Russia of attempting to hold out a genocide in opposition to the Ukrainian individuals and expressed her sympathy with the greater than 11 million Ukrainians who’ve been pressured to flee their houses.
Poland has accepted the biggest variety of them, with 3 million crossing into Poland because the struggle started and 1.6 million Ukrainians registering for nationwide identification numbers, indicating they plan to stay for a while. Most are ladies and youngsters.
“I wish I could hug each of them. It is easy to imagine the difficult path they went through, escaping from basements or bunkers in Mariupol, from shelling in Kharkiv, from the occupied Kyiv region, and even from Lviv or Odesa, which were also under fire from Russian missiles,” she mentioned.
She additionally thanked Poles for his or her efforts to assist Ukrainians, a message her husband additionally delivered to the Polish media on Friday.
The newspaper, making clear that it interviewed Zelenska remotely, requested her if the struggle had modified her husband, the previous comedic actor who has rallied and united Ukraine as a wartime chief, successful respect worldwide.
“The war has not changed him,” she replied. “He has always been a man you can rely on. A man who will never fail. Who will hold out until the end. It’s just that now the whole world has seen what may not have been clear to everyone before.” She was additionally requested if she had a message for the moms, wives and sisters of Russian troopers. Zelenska mentioned she didn’t, as a result of “nothing gets through to them.” “During those two months, as their sons are being killed in Ukraine as criminals and occupiers, they had time to define their position. Since there is no such declaration — if the coffins do not convince them that something is wrong here — then I have nothing to say to them,” she mentioned.
