Photo: Pavlo_Bagmut/ Ukrinform/Barcroft Media via Getty
Zelenska, 44, said staying focused on her family can be helpful as she copes with the tragedy of a war that’s taking thousands of lives, displacing millions more and destroying much of her country. (She and her children remain in an undisclosed location.)
“When there is someone to take care of, it’s very disciplining,” she said, adding that her kids have also benefited from finding purpose and comforting others through crisis.
“They have grown dramatically during this time and also feel responsible for each other and those around them,” she told CNN.
Zelenska praised her young son and teenage daughter — and youth across the country — for seeing the horror of war for what it is without overanalyzing or rationalizing it.
“Nothing specifically needed to be explained. We are just talking about everything that is happening,” she said of discussing the unfolding violence with her kids.
“When I watch the interviews of the children from Bucha or hear the stories of my friends about their children, I realize that children understand everything no better than adults,” she continued. “They look at the essence. As one young child said: ‘Why are Russians so mean to us? Apparently, they were beaten at home?’ "
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, first lady Olena Zelenska and their two children.olenazelenska_official/Instagram
Children have been a focus for the first lady, a former writer, since her husband became Ukraine’s president in 2019. “Their needs were one of the main areas of my work, along with the introduction of … equal rights for all Ukrainians,” she explained in the CNN interview, giving the example of initiatives to improve nutrition in schools.
Because of the war, “I feel we were thrown years and decades back,” she said.
“Now we are not talking about healthy food, but about food in general. It’s about the survival of our children,” she explained. “We can’t talk about a healthy lifestyle for children — the No. 1 goal is to save [them] at all.”
Zelenska offered an analogy to demonstrate how priorities change during wartime. “Imagine that you have built and renovated a house and just put flowers on the windowsill,” she said. “Now it is destroyed, and on the ruin you must light a fire to keep warm. This is what has happened to our children’s policies and to each family in general.”
Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo
“It’s like walking a tightrope: If you start thinking how you do it, you lose time and balance. So, to hold on, you just must go ahead and do what you do,” she said. “Many of those who escaped from the battlefields alone, who saw death, say the main cure after the experience is to act, to do something, to be helpful for somebody.”
Her fellow citizens have demonstrated this strategy since the war began six weeks ago and the result, she found, was unity in the face of an invasion.
“On the first day of the war it became clear that there was no panic,” Zelenska said. “When the attack took place, we did not become a ‘frightened crowd,’ as the enemy had hoped. No. We became an organized community. At once, the political and other controversies that exist in every society disappeared. Everyone came together to protect their home.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Guillaume Herbaut/Agence VU/Re
With nearly3 million followers on Instagram, Zelenska said she is proud to spotlight others' efforts she sees from others on social media.
“I see examples every day, and I never get tired of writing about it,” she said. “Ukrainians are incredible.”
Russia’sattack on Ukrainecontinues after their forces launched a large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.
More than 4 million have fled the country as refugees — and half are children,according to the United Nations. Millions more have been displaced inside Ukraine.
With NATO forces amassed in the region, various countries are offering aid or military support to the resistance. Zelenskyy has called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.
Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.
“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,“he told the European Unionin a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”
source: people.com
