Olena Zelenska, wife to Ukraine’s president has described how she has dealt with being the First Lady of a country at war, saying no one prepares a person for such a role.
Speaking to African journalists in Kyiv on Thursday, she said, just as no one prepared her to be wife to the president, no one prepared her to be First Lady of a country at war.
“There are no books,” Mrs Zelenska quipped.
She noted that she now has to abandon her professional life to play the full-time role of a first lady.
“My life now lives between two objects, work and home.”
Since the war broke out, Mrs Zelenska has focused on providing psychological support to Ukrainians through her foundation including feeding school children and rehabilitating children who returned from Russia.
She told journalists that only 386 of almost 20,000 Ukrainian children illegally deported to Russia have returned to Ukraine and are being cared for through her foundation.
According to Mrs Zelenska, returned children said Russia tried to brainwash them by telling them that their parents did not want them and left them behind.
Russia told the children that they rescued them when Ukraine rejected them and Russia had become their new homeland.
She accused Russia of wanting to erase memories of Ukraine by putting the children under psychological pressure which in itself is a war crime.
Unfortunately, the other children are still in captivity and Ukraine has no access to them and does not know about their living conditions in Russia, she said.
When asked how she copes with the responsibilities, Mrs Zelenska said she also takes part in the psychological support programme.
She noted that she wants to be able to enjoy the victory of her country when it happens.
She described the human mind as structured in a way that it adapts to different situations.
Although her responsibilities are not easy to shoulder and no one wants such experiences, she needs to remain useful to her people, she said.
“Sometimes, I am scared but I cannot share so others will not lose hope,” she added.
Mrs Zelenska said she hopes that her people can recover from the war and will become better people as a result of their experiences from the war and not the opposite.
She added that another source of strength for her is being able to remain in Ukraine and witness the war with her people.
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