First lady of Ukraine – this is Olena Zelenska

Olena Volodymyrivna Zelenska (44), Olena Kiyashko, born February 6, 1978. She grew up in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, and this is where she first met Volodymyr ZelenskyThen they went to school together.

However, it wasn’t until college that the two became lovers. He studied law while studying architecture.

When he was 19 years old, Zelensky started a new comedy group – the 95th quarter – and made Zelenska on the team as a screenwriter. They married in 2003 after eight years together, having a daughter Oleksandra in 2004 and a son Kirillo in 2013.

You won’t be the first lady

Six years after the birth of his son, Volodymyr Zelensky ran for president of Ukraine. Zelenska was skeptical of the man’s decision and did not immediately accept it.

– I wasn’t very happy when I realized it was his plan. In an interview with the Ukrainian, Zelenska said that I realized that everything would change, and what challenges it would bring Vogue magazine.

She told the magazine that her time as a mother, before her life as first lady, was when she could drive a car alone. Now, surrounded by guards at all times, she is only lonely when in the bathroom.

– But I’m lucky with the people I have in my life. They are quiet when I need silence, and they can hold a conversation when they feel the need, Zelenska said.

The screenwriter describes himself as a small public figure, who prefers to stay in the background.

I’m not the center of the party and I don’t like telling jokes. She said it’s not in my nature.

Join the family

During her time as First Lady, she fought against, among other things, domestic violence and focused on gender equality and improving school food. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the focus was on completely different things.

Olena Zelenska is now the first lady of a country at war.

– Dear Ukrainian people! See you all today. Everyone I watch on TV, on the street, on the Internet. You are gorgeous. I am proud to live in the same country as you,” Zelenska wrote in an Instagram post on the same day she attacked Russia.

– I don’t want to panic and cry. I want to be calm and confident. My children are watching me. I want to be next to them and next to my husband. And with you, I finished the post.

But despite the war and how vulnerable they were as a presidential family, Zelenska and the children – as far as is known – chose to stay in the capital, Kyiv, with Zelensky.

kids shields

During the war, she shared frequent updates on Instagram about Ukrainians who lost their lives, including children.

The most frightening and devastating thing about this invasion is the children infected with it. When Russia claims it does not want to harm civilians, I think of the murdered children first, she wrote in an open letter on March 8.

She mostly chose to protect her two children from social media, but her daughter Oleksandra has already followed in her father’s footsteps and starred in several films.

This is despite the fact that Zelenska’s desire for children was a more ordinary, more secluded life.

“Yngstemann still had the chance of a normal childhood – to play with other kids, play sports, go to music school without attracting undue attention,” she said. Interview in 2019.

Putin will stop

It is not known exactly where Zelenska and the children lived during the war in full swing, but the 44-year-old continues to share posts with Ukrainian residents through social media.

In a post last week, she called on NATO to comply with the request for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

“If we do not stop Putin, who is threatening nuclear war, there will be no safe place in the world for any of us,” Zelenska wrote.