Volodymyr Zelensky’s wife has revealed she thinks Putin has made a “fatal mistake” in invading Ukraine in an interview about the impact of the war on her country and family.
In an interview with Vogue magazine, Olena Zelenska said she realised Russia’s invasion had begun when she heard a “clunk” in the early hours of the morning which she did not immediately recognise as an explosion.
Her husband said only “it started”, she said, advising her to gather essentials and documents “just in case”.
She said it was the last time that she saw Zelensky in a suit, with Ukraine’s leader donning military apparel from that point onwards.
The 44-year-old told the magazine Putin had made a “fatal mistake” in believing he could subjugate the Ukrainian people.
“We are all Ukrainians first, and then everything else. He wanted to divide us, to shatter us, to provoke internal confrontation, but it is impossible to do this with Ukrainians,” she said.
“When one of us is tortured, raped, or killed, we feel that we all are being tortured, raped, or killed.”
Testimony of mass graves, rape, and torture of civlians by Russian troops around Kyiv, including in the town of Bucha, has shocked the world and led to Russia being suspended from the UN’s top human rights body.
Ukraine’s First Lady revealed neither she nor their children have seen Zelensky since the beginning of the invasion on February 24 because it is not safe to do so.
Now, the family only talks to the war-time leader on the phone. “In those first days I hoped that we might be able to stay with him,” she said.
“But the president’s office had become a military facility and my children and I were forbidden to stay there.”
Ukraine’s First Lady said Russia had broken its promise to only strike military targets on the very first day of the invasion, killing a civilian gas service dispatcher called Svetlana.
She described the horrors of the actions Putin’s men have carried out during the invasion. “In the following days we lost children. They died from shell fragments in their hometowns. We have lost more than 200 children.” She said.
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She repeated calls for NATO to enforce a no-fly zone over the skies of Ukraine which the military alliance’s leaders have ruled out for fear of direct conflict with Russia, a nuclear power.
The Zelenskys have now been married for 18 years, having tied the knot in September 2003.
The couple have a two children together – a daughter Oleksandra, and a son Kyrylo.
