The Conversation (0)
Kate Plummer
Jul 27, 2022
Zelensky's wife tells Piers Morgan she hopes challenge of Ukraine war will ...
Indy
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky participated in a Vogue photoshoot with his wife, Olena Zelenska, and some people think he shouldn't have.
The leader appeared in photos alongside a profile piece about his wife, in which they discussed the impact of the war with Russia which started in February.
In her interview, Zelenska said experiencing the war has been "the most horrible months" of her life.
“These have been the most horrible months of my life, and the lives of every Ukrainian,” she said, speaking her country’s language through a translator. “Frankly I don’t think anyone is aware of how we have managed emotionally.” What inspires her, she told me, is her fellow Ukrainians. “We’re looking forward to victory. We have no doubt we will prevail. And this is what keeps us going.”
Meanwhile, Zelensky said he was worried about his family's safety. “Like any ordinary man, I have been worried sick about them, about their safety. I didn’t want them to be put in danger,” he said. “It’s not about romance. It’s about horrors that were happening here in Kyiv’s outskirts and all those horrors that are happening now in our country, in occupied territories,” he said. “But of course I’ve been missing them. I’ve wanted to hug them so much. I’ve wanted to be able to touch them.” He’s proud of Zelenska, he said, for coping. “She has a strong personality to start with. And probably she is stronger than she thought she was. And this war—well, any war is probably bound to bring out qualities you never expected to have.”
But some people thought it was a bad move:
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\u201cWhile I have the liberals here on my page, how do you all feel about your Messiah Zelenskyy doing photoshoots for Vogue Magazine while we\u2019re sending him billions for his war with Putin?\n\nI don\u2019t remember the photoshoots of Neville Chamberlain for Cosmopolitan back in 1940!\u201d— Lavern Spicer \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Lavern Spicer \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1658880602
\u201czelensky has done an extraordinary job in beating the russians in information warfare \n\nvogue wartime photo shoot:\nbad idea\u201d— ian bremmer (@ian bremmer) 1658883488
\u201cOrdinary Ukrainians are dying every single day in a war they can't win while Zelenskyy is busy doing photoshoots for Vogue, accusing his top government officials of treason, and sitting on his mountain of cash from the U.S. government.\u201d— Greg Price (@Greg Price) 1658885310
\u201cwartime vogue photo shoots. very serious. let\u2019s keep sending ukraine weekly billion dollar aid packages to protect \u201cdemocracy.\u201d don\u2019t question it.\u201d— Logan Hall (@Logan Hall) 1658862926
\u201cThe Zelenskyy Vogue photoshoot? Yikes\u201d— Aisha S Gani (@Aisha S Gani) 1658915128
But others supported it and explained taking part in the shoot could help raise awareness about the war:
\u201cIconic. \ud83d\udc9b\ud83d\udc99#standwithukraine\u201d— Satoshe Says \ud83c\udf3b \ud83d\udc99\ud83d\udc9b \ud83c\udf3b (@Satoshe Says \ud83c\udf3b \ud83d\udc99\ud83d\udc9b \ud83c\udf3b) 1658916059
\u201cUkraine needs to keep talking to the world to counter fatigue and disinterest. Women (esp. Vogue readers) play a huge role and are a critical voting block\n\nKind of weird you don't take them seriously\u201d— Jakub Parusinski (@Jakub Parusinski) 1658904169
\u201cSo, a big part of Zelenskyy's job is doing as much PR for Western auidences as possible, to keep the war in the public consciousness, to ensure the support from the US/UK/etc continues, so *a* Vogue photoshoot makes sense.\n\nBut someone should have noticed how this one would look.\u201d— Euan Yours (@Euan Yours) 1658913179
The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.
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