“In Ukraine there are two million more women than men. They’re just stats that now take on a whole new meaning. Because it means that our current resistance also has a particularly feminine face, ”writes Olena Zelenska (44), the first lady of Ukraine on her Instagram.
She, like her husband, President Volodímir Zelenski (44), remain in the country with their two children, Alexandra, 17, and Kiril, 9. “I will not panic or cry,” she wrote. I will be calm and confident. My children are looking at me. I will be with them. And with my husband.”
Olena and Volodymyr went to the same school, but they did not go out together until the university stage
The president, before rejecting the opportunity to be evacuated from Kyiv, already pointed out that “the enemy marked me as the number one target, my family as the number two target”, so that it remains in an undisclosed location.
If her husband appears in videos unshaven and in a T-shirt, Olena Zelenska, whose maiden name is Kiyashko, has decided to use social networks to encourage her people and give them practical information about the state of war.
Born in 1978 in Krivyi Rih, in the center of the country, Zelenska studied architecture, which she has never practiced, and then turned to writing. She had met Zelensky at school and they had mutual friends, but love was born at the university, while he was studying law and was a budding comedian. They dated for eight years and created the Smichu League, very popular comedy and satire stand-up contests. They were married on September 6, 2003 and that same year they founded the production company Kvartal 95 Studio, where she worked as a screenwriter.
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When the protagonist of the parody The people’s servant, a phenomenon in the country, he took a step forward to run for the royal presidency, his wife flew into a rage: she found out on social networks. As Olena Zelenska explained to Vogue Ukraine, when she asked for an explanation, her husband’s response was : “I forgot”. Despite her initial reluctance, in the royal election campaign she supported him in photo sessions and speeches.
Zelensky became famous playing a high school teacher unexpectedly elected president after his anti-corruption tirade went viral. And, by chance, the comedian in turn became the president of Ukraine in 2019. Olena said then that she preferred to stay behind the scenes: “I feel more comfortable in the shadows. I’m not the life of the party, I don’t like to tell jokes.”
But upon arriving at the Mariyinsky palace, he discovered that the expectation aroused by the first lady gave him the opportunity to “draw attention to important social issues.”
In December 2019, he began his country’s accession to the Biarritz Association, the G-7 initiative on gender equality. He has also focused on accessibility to culture or the fight against junk food, following in the footsteps of Michelle Obama.
“I understand how many problems we have. But if I cling to everything, it won’t work”, so he decided to focus “on specific tasks: children’s health, equal opportunities for Ukrainians and cultural diplomacy”, he explained on a visit to the US.
A cultural diplomacy that was seen in their outfits. “How nice it is to promote Ukrainian designers around the world,” he explained in a few days of peace that right now seem from another world and another time.