A screenwriter by trade, Olena Zelenska has always preferred darkness to light. Quite the opposite of her husband Volodymyr Zelensky, one of Ukraine’s best-known comedians before his election as president of the country in 2019. “I’ve always been a non-public figure and I don’t like the extra attention given to me”she said in Elle magazine, a few months before the invasion of Ukraine.
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Mobilisation
It took the stalemate of a war for her to assume the spotlight. This Saturday, July 23, she must host an online summit of wives and husbands of heads of state for the reconstruction of Ukraine. “Ukraine will always be grateful for your support”she promises on Twitter where she multiplies the calls for donations in cryptocurrency.
The change is radical, for the one who spent the first weeks of the Russian invasion under cover, moving from one cache to another with her two children. At 44, this architect by training had to break with her discreet nature to assist her husband in the diplomatic work, as essential as it is incessant to ensure maximum support from the West. Yet his political role does not begin now.
Olena Zelenska is inseparable from Zelensky’s career, which owes her a lot. She was one of the feathers of the series “servant of the people” in which Volodymyr Zelensky plays a Ukrainian president. And once reality caught up with fiction, she corrected her speeches, as a communications consultant. Both she and her husband are from Kryvy Rig, in central Ukraine. Became friends at the age of 19 during their studies, they formed a couple from the start of their career. Married in 2003, they have always moved forward in tandem.
In Washington, a quasi-state visit
Today, Olena Zelenska’s mission goes far beyond the charitable role sometimes assigned to first ladies. While Volodymyr Zelensky must stay in Ukraine to embody the army chief totally devoted to the war effort, his wife is now allowing herself to travel abroad. She has become the voice of the country beyond the borders. This week, she was propelled to the cover of the famous American magazine Time. A black and white cover that shows her serious, without a smile, calling for the support of the international community.
And for good reason: she was visiting Washington from July 18 to 20, first with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, then with the First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden, finally before Congress. A quasi state visit. Never had a leader’s wife been heard there on behalf of her country. The martial tone was tinged with emotion, these speeches being based on images of Ukrainian children. The first lady spoke in particular of the memory of Liza Dmitrieva, a four-year-old girl whom she met recently and who was killed by a Russian strike in Vinnytsia, in central Ukraine. “I ask for weapons”she proclaimed with wet eyes, four months after her husband’s intervention by videoconference and before being given a long standing ovation by the members of Congress.
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