Ukraine war
“Feel like we’re all being tortured, raped or killed”: First Lady Olena Selenska reports on the war in Ukraine
Olena Zelenska has been married to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy since 2003
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Until recently, Olena Selenska had not expected a war in Ukraine. In an interview, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reports how her husband told her about the Russian attack and when she last saw him.
Between four and five in the morning on February 24, Olena Selenska was woken up rudely by a loud bang. She didn’t immediately know it was an explosion, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with Vogue magazine. But from that moment on, her life, like that of everyone else in the country, was to be turned upside down.
At that time, her husband stood in front of her in a suit and only briefly and succinctly explained: “It has begun.” Russia had attacked Ukraine and war was raging in the country. That was the last time she saw her husband in a suit, after which the president only wore military clothing, Selenska told Vogue. “Until the last minute, I couldn’t believe this was going to happen in the 21st century,” said the 44-year-old.
Olena Selenska has not seen her husband for weeks
There was no panic in those first hours of the war, Selenska said, but “perhaps confusion.” Selenskyj asked her to pack up the most important belongings and documents – “just in case”. Then he disappeared. At first she still hoped to be able to stay with her husband, said the First Lady of Ukraine. But then the presidential palace became the military control center and the president was separated from his family for security reasons. According to Selenska, she has not seen her husband since the first days of the war.
She and her two children (9 and 17 years old) are safe: “We were instructed to move to a safe place – if it is possible to find a safe place in Ukraine at the moment. Since then we have only communicated with Volodymyr by e-mail Phone.”
Selenska accuses Russia of “mass murder”.
Selenska and the politician have been married since 2003. The screenwriter does not like to appear in public, but has spoken out again and again since the beginning of the war. In an open letter, she accused the Kremlin of “a mass murder of Ukrainian civilians.” But Ukraine will still win the war.
In an interview with “Vogue” she was also confident of victory. Zelenska said Russia’s President Vladimir Putin made a “fatal mistake”: “He wanted to divide us, break us up, provoke an internal confrontation, but it’s impossible to do that with us Ukrainians. If one of us is tortured, raped or killed we feel like we are all being tortured, raped or killed.”
Source: “Vogue”
This article originally appeared on stern.de