Olena Zelenska rarely talks. A very reserved woman, she has always kept a very low profile, especially since the war in Ukraine. Hence, the interview given to Guardian is going around the world. She, the wife of President Zelensky, retraced the first three months of the war that shocked the world, as well as her country and her family. A conflict that made her from first lady to target number 2 of the Russians. “When you see their crimes, you understand that maybe they are really capable of anything,” she replied to the British newspaper about the possibility that she could be, after her husband, the most wanted by the Russians. “I have the feeling of being in a parallel reality,” she said, recalling the night of February 24, when she heard the first bombings. “A surreal feeling, I felt I was living in a parallel reality, and I kept a strange smile all day, so as not to show panic to my children.”
Everything happened quickly. Unexpected. “Honestly? No. I couldn’t believe it was going to happen. I didn’t even have my passport ready, ”he says, speaking of the night of the beginning of the Russian invasion. “I had a surreal feeling, like I was playing a computer game and had to pass certain levels to find myself at home. But I was also holding it all together, and I had this weird smile on my face all day, because I was trying not to show the kids panic. We just followed the security orders, we went where we were told, ”he explained.
After receiving brief instructions from her husband, President Volodymyr Zelensky, she said she was left alone and went to check on her two children, nine-year-old Kyrylo and 17-year-old Oleksandra. They were already awake and dressed, and seemed to understand what was going on, she explained to her Guardian. Only on the evening of that 24 February she was able to see her husband again, briefly, but the first lady still has not revealed where the meeting took place. Zelenska was moved to a safe place and in those days she feared she would never see her husband again.
Now Zelenska has returned to Kiev. After so many weeks away with her husband, «we hugged, said goodbye and asked ourselves how we were. The children were here and they clung to him for some time. Now we can see each other and they can physically touch their dad, that makes things a little easier, ”she said. In recent weeks, Zelenska has spoken with some of the contacts she had had in the first phase of the presidency, as well as with other first ladies. She first appeared in public, 10 weeks after the war began, to meet Jill Biden, and the couple visited a school in the far west of Ukraine: “It was brave of her to come to her. . She was extremely empathetic and very interested in the stories people had to tell. ‘ She then heard Brigitte Macron on the phone, she offered to help rebuild a school. She had a video call with Queen Matilda of Belgium, who is also a psychology professor and gave some advice on rehabilitation programs.
“Every Ukrainian is under a huge psychological burden now,” Zelenska stressed. “Half of our population lives apart from their families. Of course, most of us have never lived in these conditions before. ‘ For now, the goal is to beat the Russians, but when the war is over, a great program will be needed to heal the nation, ”she stressed. “Nobody needs a country that has won, that has fought for its territory, but that is populated by people who cannot live, function or raise their children normally. There are great dangers ahead of us, “she explained.
Olena Kiyashko, was born in 1978, in the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih, in central Ukraine. Her mother was a chief engineer in a factory and her father taught construction at a technical university. They grew up speaking Russian but felt proud to be Ukrainians, and when the Soviet Union collapsed, she says, the family welcomed Ukrainian independence.
She and Zelensky first met as children, they were in the same year at school in Kryvyi Rih, but in different classes. And their characters are different. He very lively, a career as an actor, a producer behind him before becoming president of Ukraine and a war leader. She is a lover of peace and very attentive to privacy.
During the years they were dating, Zelensky and a group of friends had formed a comedy company called Kvartal 95, named after one of the districts of Kryvyi Rih. They performed in competitions in the countries of the former Soviet Union. In 2003, the same year they got married, Kvartal started making television shows. Zelenska began working as a screenwriter, part of a team that designed sketches of comedies that Zelensky and others would play. She continued in this role for years, even sometimes participating in screenplays after Zelensky was elected president.