#her married name is olena zelenska

[stillunusual]

Meanwhile in the USA

A typical American idiot demonstrating typical American ignorance….

[thezeinterviews]

El Mundo: Olena Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine: "Ukrainians and Russians, we are at a fairly high level of hatred. For a long time, we will be enemies."

ALBERTO ROJAS | Kyiv 22/06/2023 20:39

We go through three security rings with scanner, ID and pat-down. There will be no cell phones, cameras or smart watches inside the same room where Olena Zelenska (Kryvyi Rih, 1978) is standing. Her blonde hair lights up the room like a golden flame. Although she was born in the same city as her husband, they did not meet until many years later. They have two children and attended the same school (Gymnasium Number 95). She went on to earn a degree in architecture, a music degree in piano and has been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023 by Time magazine. The current First Lady of Ukraine, dressed in elegant navy blue, cracks the knuckles of both hands as she sits down. Clack, clack, clack. Like a good scriptwriter, she clutches the papers in front of her during the first few questions until she comes to the conclusion that her most personal answers are not yet written. Then she looks at the questioner with her green eyes, turns her notes over, and the real interview begins.

Question. What is it like to be the wife of the most endangered man in the world?

Answer. I try to push that thought out of my mind. I focus on the fact that this person is responsible for our country and its people. And that is the most important thing.

Q. Do you perceive that you yourself can be a target of Russia?

A. [Sighs, looking at the ceiling and smiles] I don't want to think about it, but it is hard to forget if all journalists ask me about it.

Q. You, as a screenwriter, could you imagine a story like yours with Zelenski? [Note: This is not a typo. His name was spelt that way in the interview.] I mean, you marry an actor who becomes President of a country that is then invaded by a nuclear power?

A. Well, it's even more difficult because he wasn't even an actor when we got married. We couldn't even imagine that he would become President, let alone of a country at war. What I did know is that he knows how to look for and find ways out where no one else can. He is a very imaginative person, that's why I knew he would come out ahead in any situation.

Q. At what point did you know there would be an invasion?

A. The first news I had of the war was on the morning of February 24, like any other Ukrainian. Until the previous days, we all hoped that Vladimir Putin would be guided by logical thinking, but he was not.

Q. What restrictions do you have on seeing your own husband?

A. There is no set protocol for visits. I never see him at home because he cannot come. In the President's office, I am allowed to see him. Just today, I had lunch with him. This office is the only possible space.

Q. How do you explain to your son what is going on?

A. You always ask me that question, and I understand why. But my children are too grown up to understand what is going on. Sometimes they themselves surprise me by explaining to me what is going on better than I could have explained it to them. It is impossible to keep them in a bubble nowadays. The most important thing is not what I tell them but what they ask me. And what they always ask me is when this war is going to end. It's very painful to have to tell your son that all the things he wants to do will have to wait until after all this is over.

Q. Just as your husband has become a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance, you have also stood out as an image for many women in your country. What would you say to the thousands of Ukrainian women who are fighting the Russians at the front?

A. I would like to express my admiration for the Ukrainian military women. They have voluntarily chosen the hardest way. I am very grateful to all of them. Today I can say that it is also thanks to them that we are here talking 16 months later. When I look at the photo of Ukrainian women in uniform, I cannot help admiring their beauty. I am very proud of them. I wish them to keep their health and strength until we achieve a peaceful future.

Q. Do you feel safe in Kyiv now? Russia attacks the capital almost every night.

A. I am a citizen of Ukraine, and I am afraid like any other citizen of my country. When the anti-aircraft alert sounds, I also go into the shelter. When I am with my son at home, even at night, we try to get to safety.

Q. How has this war changed your own role as First Lady of Ukraine?

A. I didn't want to stop all the work I started to do before the Russian invasion, and that's what I'm still doing. But it is true that in some areas, I have expanded my diplomatic work, even if it is soft power diplomacy. I try to explain what Ukraine is, what is happening here, but in a personal, unofficial way, focusing on the stories of ordinary people. When I have to tell what is going on, I use real facts, things that have happened to people with names and surnames. The data and statistics are already in the press, but I talk about specific people I know. I have realized that this serves to create empathy.

Q. What personal impact does all this have on you?

A. During the first days of the war, every attack hit me very hard. Even at official events, I was in tears. It's not that I have become hardened now, but I have to make every effort to tell the story to the end. In the end, I am human, I have emotions, and I cry. Today, in this very interview, I can start crying. That happens to me many times.

Q. 10 days ago, Russian missiles attacked your hometown and that of your husband, Kryvyi Rih, leaving many dead. How did you feel when you heard about it?

A. When Russian missiles hit any city in Ukraine, there are terrible situations, but when it happens in your hometown, you immediately try to recognize the exact place of shelling. During the first hours, I did not have clear images for safety, but then I already realized what the place was. Of course, I know that house and that street. When I was a child, I passed by that place many times, and it's hard for me to understand that it no longer exists.

Q. You focused your work before the war on the creation of programs for equality and against domestic violence. Is it possible to advance in something like that in the middle of the war?

A. The war deepened all the problems we already had. If we think about the equal opportunity program, this invasion is increasing the problems of mental illness, as well as hearing, sight … . Today, nothing connects us with the Russian society. They have other values. Since we cannot change them, we have to go our own way. For example, we worked to bring forward a law on violence against women, but the Russians overturned their own law. In other words, we are going in opposite social directions. But if we talk about violence, there are also different types of violence that can affect men, such as economic violence. That's why this program is very broad.

Q. Is the European Union the model towards which Ukraine is traveling?

A. Ukrainian society is trying to move towards tolerance towards all its citizens with the model close to many countries of the European Union. Although it is true that many people are not quite ready to accept some processes, such as that two homosexual persons can marry. The most important thing is that the number of those who refuse the existence of same-sex marriages or unions has decreased. There is a cultural transformation, but these are slow transitions. The most important thing is that there are no legal restrictions in Ukraine with people who see sexuality differently. In Russia, on the other hand, they use the word Gayropa to refer to the European Union.

Q. How do you imagine the Ukraine of the future?

A. I am not a fantasist. I understand very well that we have a lot of work ahead of us. I have high hopes for this post-traumatic growth. Thanks to the current difficulties we will emerge much tougher and, therefore, I believe that we will be more successful. For example, it would never have been impossible to undertake painful reforms before. Now we can.

Q. Aren't you going to write a book about this whole experience?

A. I am not going to lie. I have had many proposals to write a book, but I want to find an idea that is original so that I can present everything that has happened in this story. I haven't found that approach yet, though.

Q. Will our generation be able to see Ukrainians and Russians having good relations again one day?

A. It depends on each person. Now we are all at a rather high level of hatred. How long will it last? Nobody knows. After our victory, there will come a time of tears as we remember those who died in the war. Our attitude toward Russia will depend on what we get from the other side, but we don't know how long it will take. There is no scale that can measure that, but it will be very difficult to see the Russians the same as other neighbours. For a long time, we will perceive them as our enemies.

Q. In a Ukrainian TV report, your husband showed his closet to a journalist. It was all green military clothes except for a civilian suit at the end of the hanger. He said that he was saving that suit for the victory day. Do you have a suit ready?

A. Has he already chosen that suit for victory day? Well, I think I will choose it for him in the end. I will prepare the most special suit for that day, but the truth is that I haven't thought about that event yet. Although to tell you the truth, I don't really care about the dress, because the main thing is that the victory in this war will bring the most important moment in the history of that country.

Article

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

Little writer fanfic game: You know the end cards some movies have when they tell you more about the future of the characters or what happened afterwards?

Assuming that Showman would be made into a movie or series ... what would be Showman's end card? Which characters would be featured? What would there future be like?

Ooooooohhhhhhhh, that's such a cool question!!! 😍

Okay:

Andriy Yermak remained loyal to politics and continued Zelenskyy's political legacy. He initiated various democratic movements over the years. Thanks to him, many laws are implemented. He eventually becomes one of the most popular politicians of his time. With Zelenskyy and Olena he remains very close friends for life.

Maksym Donets retires as Zelenskyy retires as president. However, he remains his personal bodyguard.

All other members of Kvartal remain loyal to the company and group until they retire. Some of their children carry on the legacy.

Lenny Kravets never returns to Kvartal as a permanent member. However, 11 years after the war, she is making a comeback with the group and keeps popping up as a guest actress. Meanwhile, she is making a career of her own and is becoming one of the best-known and most successful presenters in Ukraine.

Zheka Koshevoy enjoys success as an actor until his retirement and becomes the new leader of Kvartal.

Sasha Pikalov finally graduates from university. He will also remain one of the leaders of Kvartal until his retirement.

Lenny, Zheka and Sasha, like everyone else, remain best friends with Zelenskyy and Olena. They usually meet once a month.

Oleksandra Zelenska graduates and becomes an internationally renowned human rights lawyer. She makes it her life's work to bring Russian war criminals to justice. In all, she brings more than 7,000 war criminals to justice. Most are convicted. She marries but keeps her last name. She later follows her father's path and becomes President...twice.

Kyrylo Zelenskyy does not later become a soldier. He studied acting and business management and took over his father's company. Under him, Kvartal becomes one of the most respected and important international production companies. He also produces and directs his own films. In total he wins 8 Oscars.

Olena Zelenska later withdrew completely from the public and continued to run her foundation privately for many years. The foundation is now one of the most important humanitarian foundations in the world, the Olena Zelenska Prize as one of the most important awards for humanitarian commitment. Olena later starts writing screenplays again.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is still considered the most popular president of all time. Under him he is leading Ukraine into a democratic future. Ukraine joins NATO and the EU. Because of his reforms, Ukraine eventually becomes one of the most important and richest nations in the EU. After his second term in office, he remains loyal to politics and has been working with Andriy for years to further advance Ukraine. He never returns to show business, but is a regular viewer at the Kvartal shows.

Olena and Volodymyr remain happily together for the rest of their lives. They live outside of Kyiv and take care of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They will be 105 years old. Volodymyr dies exactly 95 days after Olena.

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

For anyone who can't read it:

“Our son wants to be a soldier”: an interview with Ukraine’s first lady

Olena Zelenska on the war, homeschooling and Russia’s hit squads

Jun 19th 2022

By Oliver Carroll

The barbed wire, sandbags and sniper positions of Ukraine’s presidential compound make a dramatic backdrop for a photoshoot. But Olena Zelenska looks drained when she appears, wearing a flowing, electric-blue suit and clutching a pair of high heels to don for the photos. Ukraine’s first lady admits to being a reluctant interviewee.

The contrast with her media-hungry, jollier half is obvious. But her mood picks up when a familiar, husky voice roars from behind an open door: “I heard you were in the building.” The president smiles as he appears, then hardens at the sight of journalists, whom he seemingly wasn’t expecting. For five minutes, the photoshoot becomes the Volodymyr Zelensky show. “I wanted to see my wife, and now you’re making me work,” he quips to me, before turning for the camera. “You want our faces too, not only our backs?”

It was always going to be an adventure with Volodymyr, says Zelenska, from the moment he and two friends simultaneously proposed to Zelenska and two of her friends, when they were all travelling together in a white minibus as twenty-somethings. “Girls listen, we’ve had a chat, and this is what’s going to happen,” is how Zelenska, now 44, remembers his pitch. The high-school sweethearts had already been dating for eight years, but it wasn’t love at first sight, Zelenska says. She isn’t sure that she even liked him at the start: “He was just a boy I knew, someone I saw change from seventh grade to eleventh grade.” The two were united by their sense of humour (hers was better than his, she says) and a common group of friends who later formed Kvartal 95, the entertainment company that made Volodymyr famous. There was no question of Zelenska agreeing or not to the minibus proposal, let alone anyone getting on their knees: “It was fate, and all of that.” The three couples ended up getting married a week apart in the summer of 2003.

She was impressed by his daily videos – but thought they should have been half the length

They had grown up alongside each other in Kryvyi Rih, an industrial city in southern Ukraine, now near the front line of the war. She remembers romantic summers spent with Volodymyr and their friends, listening to music and hanging out by the river. Their choice of a career in comedy – she wrote the scripts, Volodymyr performed – later propelled them to the bright lights of Kyiv, which has since become their home. It was there that her husband, having played the part of a teacher-turned-president in a popular TV series, “Servant of the People”, launched his audacious bid to become the real president in 2019. They could never have expected what was going to happen to Ukraine. “We were naive,” she says. “We thought that we could win through honest work and graft. It turned out to be a lot more complicated than that.”

It was still dark when Zelenska woke up on February 24th 2022, thinking that she’d heard fireworks. Her husband was already in the room next door, fully clothed. “It’s started,” he said, and immediately left. It was Zelenska’s task to tell her nine-year-old son Kyrylo, and 17-year-old daughter Oleksandra, what was happening. She told herself she mustn’t cry as she walked down the corridor, quaking. But when she got to the kids’ rooms she realised they were already awake and “knew everything”.

She told them to get ready for a trip to the countryside: “I had to show that everything was just great, cool, that it was an adventure.” By that evening the three of them were in a secret location far from the capital; her cheeks hurt after a day of fake smiles.

The first lady says she survived the early days on a mix of adrenaline and Valerian before the latter ran out. She tried not to think about her husband being named as target number one for Russian hit squads – or about herself and her children being target number two. The “professionals” would do what was necessary to keep them all safe: “I understood that I understood nothing, but was responsible for the kids and needed to react to the situation.” Like Ukrainians across the country, the presidential family suddenly divided along gender lines. He donned military green and showed his battle face to the world. She kept her private vigil, tending to the home front.

Every time the sirens wailed Zelenska and her children would rush down to the bomb shelter; up and down, up and down again. She couldn’t sleep, and often watched her nine-year-old as he napped or played on his phone. One time she dozed off only to be woken by her son. “Mum,” he said, “time to go to the shelter.” Many of her friends – actors and writers – signed up for Ukraine’s army and territorial defence. When her husband introduced martial law, banning any man aged 18-60 from leaving the country, many women fled with their children; others, like her, found a wartime role away from the front.

“Civilisation is a thin film, torn very quickly. It’s frightening to realise that it’s not shared by people living alongside us, not shared by the monsters of Bucha”

Civilisation is a “thin film torn very quickly,” says Zelenska. Her immediate fear about what the Russians might do – to her family, to her country – turned into a dawning realisation of all that mankind is capable of. “We thought that everyone was the same, that the decades of humanity in Europe were the values we all lived by. That turned out not to be the case.” News of atrocities in Bucha, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol have unfolded like a bad film, she says. “It’s frightening to realise this thin enamel of civilisation is not shared by people living alongside us, not shared by the monsters of Bucha.” She goes on: “Mariupol can happen anywhere at any time in any country. Now I really think that anything is possible.”

As the world woke up to the horrors of war in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky became a figurehead of the free world. Many have remarked on his extraordinary evolution from showman to international statesman, but Zelenska says she has not been surprised by it. “Volodymyr was always someone I could rely on. That simply became more obvious to more people.” Before the war, she used to take it personally when Volodymyr was criticised. But he was always brave enough to be himself, she says. “It’s an illusion that an actor remains an actor. He’s as open as a human being can be. I can read his face like a book, and I’m sure you can too.”

The couple didn’t see each other for over two months. Like other Ukrainians, Zelenska watched her husband’s daily speeches to the nation on social media – she was impressed by them even if, she suggests, the finished product should have been half the length. “Volodymyr always says I criticise him too much, that I never praise him enough,” she allows herself a rare bellow of laughter. She also observed her husband’s blooming facial hair (trimmed back since she returned to Kyiv recently). His beard reminded her of happier times: summer holidays when filming was over and he could let himself go. In wartime, it meant something else.

The pair spoke regularly during their time apart, and he’d chat with the kids “about all sorts of things, even just nonsense”. But it was the first lady who sat with her son as he did his homework, and coaxed her daughter through her final year of school. She made the meals, not that that was a big change: her husband was always a weekend cook, a meat-on-sticks kind of man.

“Volodymyr always says I criticise him too much, that I never praise him enough”

When Volodymyr became president in 2019, Zelenska took on initiatives appropriate to a first lady: improving school meals, promoting Ukrainian culture, tackling gender inequality. To hold such a role during wartime has added a unique set of pressures. She talks of others experiencing trauma, but she too feels it. She wouldn’t wish the situation on anybody. “No one wants to be at the epicentre of these terrible events,” she says. She stopped writing scripts – this was no time for comedy – and diverted her energies into evacuating vulnerable children and rolling out psychological support. Last year she convened a network of first ladies – now she mobilised this group to help arrange treatment abroad for hundreds of ill and injured children. Jill Biden made a surprise visit to Ukraine in May; Brigitte Macron greeted a flight of evacuees arriving in Paris: “The plane was full of terrified mums and kids, and to see her climb on board was a wonderful gesture.”

Zelenska worries that, with the flight of so many Ukrainians abroad, much of the country’s potential has disappeared. But the future is almost too frightening to think about, she says. For now, every Ukrainian has to protect what they have, “to survive and live at any cost”. Like Zelenska herself, many have already returned from havens elsewhere and are now daring to live something of a normal life. Yet “the idea that it’s an ordinary summer is an illusion”. War rages in the east. Atrocities unfold. And everyone knows that life is on hold – including her own. She still does not see her husband more than once or twice a week.

Like other parents, Zelenska fears for the next generation. The most unfortunate ones are receiving their young in body bags. Zelenska knows she is lucky to have her children close by. Her daughter is about to turn 18, and will soon go to university in Kyiv. Her son has longer to go before reaching that milestone: “I really hope that when he’s 18, we will have had many years of living in a free and peaceful country,” says Zelenska. At present, life – and Ukraine – seem a long way from that. “The most frightening thing of all is that he tells everyone he wants to be a soldier.” ■

Oliver Carroll is a correspondent for The Economist in Ukraine. You can read the rest of our coverage of the war here

PHOTOGRAPHS: FRANCO PAGETTI / VII AGENCY

Here we have a new interview with Olena! It's kinda ironic, their son wants to be a soldier. I hope he will change his mind in the future. 😉