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In a rare joint television interview, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had “torn apart” their family, as had millions of other households across the country.
Zelenska, who has two children with Ukraine’s wartime president, admitted she had hardly seen Zelenskyi since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine. She said she and her husband have communicated mostly by phone since then.
“Our family was torn apart like any other Ukrainian family,” Zelenska said. “He lives from his job. We didn’t see him at all for 2 1/2 months.”
But Zelenska was quick to dismiss the idea, raised by one of the interviewers of Ukrainian TV channel ICTV, that the war “basically took her husband.”
“No one takes my husband away from me, not even the war,” Zelenska replied.
The interview marked the second time the couple, who married in 2003, have performed together since the February 24 Russian invasion. During the meeting, Zelenska said she was “grateful” for their TV appearance together because it meant they could finally spend time together.
“A date on TV, thanks,” she joked. Zelenskyy nodded next to her.
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In the early days of the war, Zelenskyy said he was Russia’s “Target #1” and his family “Target #2.”
“They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state,” he told Ukrainians in a February address, though he refused to flee. Instead, Zelensky took to the streets of the capital and posted defiant videos on social media, earning him worldwide praise while his wife and children huddled in an undisclosed location for their safety.
During her interview, Zelenska said she remembered waking up to “strange noises” as Russia began its invasion and noting that her husband was not by her side. Zelensky was already awake and in the next room putting on a suit.
“It’s started,” she recalls telling her before he left – words she said left her in a state of “anxiety and drowsiness.”
The war has raised the profile of Ukraine’s president, who has broadcast video addresses to Ukrainians most nights and addressed parliaments around the world. He has appeared virtually at events ranging from the Grammys to the Cannes Film Festival, which opened last week.
Before becoming president three years ago, Zelensky was a comedian and actor who played the role of a president on screen. The 44-year-old also voiced Paddington Bear and won the Ukrainian version of “Dancing with the Stars” in 2006.
Zelenska, 44, is a screenwriter and has rarely been seen in public since the Russian invasion. She was first spotted in early May as Ukraine celebrated Mother’s Day and met in western Ukraine with US first lady Jill Biden, who had crossed the border from Slovakia.
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“We understand what it takes for the US First Lady to come here during a war, when the military action is happening every day, where the air sirens are sounding every day, even today,” Zelenska said back then.
“The people of the United States stand behind the people of Ukraine,” Biden told her.
Zelensky and his wife appeared on television as Russia struggled to rebound after suffering huge losses in Ukraine. The prospects of victory for Vladimir Putin’s troops are rapidly fading — despite early predictions that Moscow would rush to victory largely unchallenged, the Washington Post reported.
“We broke the back of the largest or one of the strongest armies in the world,” Zelenskyi told interviewers.
During the hour-long interview with the couple, Zelenska expressed hope that after the war ended, she would be able to focus again on issues affecting Ukrainian women, such as unequal pay.
“After the victory, we will remember the heroism of our Ukrainian women,” she said.