Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters is embroiled in a controversy in Poland, where his comments that in part blamed the Ukrainian political establishment for Russia’s invasion appear to have led to the cancellation of two of his concerts in Krakow.
Waters, the rock musician best known for his work on Pink Floyd’s 1979 album, “The Wall,” was due to perform in Krakow on April 21 and 22 as part of his solo farewell tour, dubbed “This is not a drill.”
But the venues canceled the performances in the wake an exchange Waters had with Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska in recent weeks — with Waters also facing potential censure from the Krakow City Council after a member submitted a proposal to declare him persona non grata.
Waters, who frequently speaks out on foreign policy issues and is no stranger to controversy because of it, said Saturday in a statement that the cancellation of his Polish shows would “be a sad loss for me.”
Elton John ‘flabbergasted’ and teary after Biden surprises him with medal
In early September, Waters published an open letter addressed to Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In it, Waters professed incredulity about her assertion to the BBC that more support for Ukraine would bring the war to an end faster.
“I guess that might depend on what you mean by ‘support for Ukraine’? If by ‘support for Ukraine’ you mean the West continuing to supply arms to the Kiev government’s armies, I fear you may be tragically mistaken,” he wrote.
Waters went on to accuse the United States of having a vested interest in extending the war and said “extreme nationalists” in Ukraine were violating “any number of red lines that had been set out quite clearly over a number of years by your neighbors the Russian Federation,” putting Ukraine “on the path to this disastrous war” — a statement many interpreted as victim-blaming.
Zelenska responded on Twitter that Waters should “ask [Russian President Vladimir Putin] for peace. Not Ukraine.”
Ukraine’s first lady details war’s toll on the Zelensky family
Waters regularly espouses incendiary political opinions. Most recently, a video shown during his concerts referred to President Biden as a “war criminal.”
In contrast, Pink Floyd, which Waters left in an acrimonious breakup in the mid-1980s, released a single this year in support of Ukraine, “Hey Hey Rise Up,” its first new music in more than two decades. The song features Ukrainian vocalist Andriy Khlyvnyuk singing a Ukrainian anthem, and proceeds from its sale were earmarked for humanitarian relief.
Poland has been one of the staunchest defenders of Ukraine — with which it shares a border — since the Russian invasion. It has taken in by far the largest number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe and has pledged or donated aid to Kyiv at levels on par with, or in some cases exceeding, commitments made by countries with much stronger economies.
Poland embraces West amid Ukraine crisis after years of drifting away
On Sunday, the entertainment platform Live Nation Polska and the concert venue Tauron Arena Krakow said in a one-line joint statement that they had “canceled Roger Waters’ concert.” They did not give a reason, and some Polish media outlets reported that Waters’s manager had decided to pull out. Waters denied those rumors in his statement Sunday.
The Krakow City Council was expected to vote this week on a proposal to declare Waters persona non grata, the Associated Press reported. The motion was submitted by Councilor Lukasz Wantuch, who, according to Deutsche Welle, previously wrote on social media that it “would be shameful for our city” if Waters were allowed to perform there. “Let him sing in Moscow,” he reportedly added.
Wantuch did not respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post early Monday.
“If Mr Łukasz Wantuch achieves his aim, and my forthcoming concerts in Krakow are canceled, it will be a sad loss for me,” Waters said in his statement. “I have been looking forward to sharing my message of love with the people of Poland, something I have been doing on many tours over a career that has lasted in excess of fifty years.”
War in Ukraine: What you need to know
The latest: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial mobilization” of troops in an address to the nation on Sept. 21, framing the move as an attempt to defend Russian sovereignty against a West that seeks to use Ukraine as a tool to “divide and destroy Russia.” Follow our live updates here.
The fight: A successful Ukrainian counteroffensive has forced a major Russian retreat in the northeastern Kharkiv region in recent days, as troops fled cities and villages they had occupied since the early days of the war and abandoned large amounts of military equipment.
Annexation referendums: Staged referendums, which would be illegal under international law, are set to take place from Sept. 23 to 27 in the breakaway Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine, according to Russian news agencies. Another staged referendum will be held by the Moscow-appointed administration in Kherson starting Friday.
Photos: Washington Post photographers have been on the ground from the beginning of the war — here’s some of their most powerful work.
How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.
Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for updates and exclusive video.
Another season, another Vogue story on a politician causing a kerfuffle. After the hoo-ha over the magazine not giving Melania Trump a cover (even though Michelle Obama got three) and the to-do over Kamala Harris’s “relaxed” portrait being chosen over her more formal cover try, comes a new controversy, related to a “digital cover” released online featuring Olena Zelenska, the Ukrainian first lady.
Entitled “Portrait of Bravery,” the article is a collaboration between the Condé Nast Vogues (pretty much all of them) and Ukrainian Vogue (a licensed magazine owned by Media Group Ukraine).
It has moody, graceful portraits of Ms. Zelenska by Annie Leibovitz: sitting on the marble steps of the presidential palace, staring grimly ahead; holding hands with her husband, President Volodymyr Zelensky; and standing next to female soldiers at Antonov Airport, clutching the lapels of a long navy overcoat. The photos are accompanied by a lengthy interview and some BTS video footage of the first couple and Ms. Leibovitz. It will appear in print later this year.
Unlike Ms. Zelenska’s first Ukrainian Vogue cover, which appeared in November 2019 not long after Mr. Zelensky was elected, and which showed the first lady romping with her family and styled in Celine, Prada, Lemaire and Jimmy Choo, the new feature eschews fashion credits. Ms. Zelenska appears polished, but the story focuses on the pain and trauma of her country and its people, as well as the couple’s relationship. None of the subjects are smiling.
A single line under one photograph notes that Ms. Zelenska is wearing entirely Ukrainian designers and lists their names. This may seem like a small thing to most viewers, but it takes the commercial element out of the shoot. Whatever it’s selling — and it’s definitely selling something — it isn’t clothes.
Our Coverage of the Russia-Ukraine War
Grain Blockade: A breakthrough deal aims to lift a Russian blockade on Ukrainian grain shipments, easing a global food crisis. But in the fields of Ukraine, farmers are skeptical.
An Ambitious Counterattack: Ukraine has been laying the groundwork to retake Kherson from Russia. But the endeavor would require huge resources, and could come at a heavy toll.
Economic Havoc: As food, energy and commodity prices continue to climb around the world, few countries are feeling the bite as much as Ukraine.
Inside a Siege: For 80 days, at the Avtostal steelworks, a relentless Russian assault met unyielding Ukrainian resistance. This is how it was for those who were there.
Nevertheless (and unsurprisingly), the article has provoked something of a backlash. Some viewers have a visceral reaction to juxtaposing the idea of “Vogue” — with its historic connections to elitism, fantasy, wealth and frivolity — and the reality of war. It looks, they say, tasteless. Especially given some of the magazine’s missteps in the past.
For example, there was an embarrassingly fawning profile of the Syrian first lady, Asma al-Assad, published in 2011 just around the time Ms. al-Assad’s husband, Bashar al-Assad, was revealed to be a bloody dictator. (The piece, which made the magazine seem morally compromised in the face of fanciness, was later removed from Vogue’s website, though it still casts a shadow on Vogue’s coverage, especially when it comes to political figures.)
“While Ukraine is going through hell, Vogue is doing a photoshoot for the President & his wife,” wrote Amrita Bhinder on Twitter.
Representative Mayra Flores, a Republican from Texas, seized the opportunity to attack the Biden administration for its financial support of Ukraine, implying it was funding vanity. Breitbart wrote a gleeful article aggregating the criticism, especially as it related to government funding.
Still, other readers have come to the defense of Ms. Zelenska, seeing the shoot as a symbol of national pride: a means to show the world Ukrainian elegance; a reminder of the balm that can be found in beauty; and a subtle nod to shared humanity in the face of inhuman aggression. She is not, after all, in a ball gown eating cake. She is in a war zone, looking haunted.
To a certain extent, the debate simply shows how tangled our feelings about fashion still are and how entrenched the view of it as a nonserious subject remains — despite the fact that fashion is a key part of pop culture and the rare equivalent of a global language. It’s one that every politician, and public figure, employs to their own ends, whether they want to admit it or not. (That’s why, despite the risks, they keep appearing in magazines like Vogue.)
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is a war being conducted on all fronts: on the ground, in the air, in the digital sphere and in the arena of public opinion. (See, for example, Ms. Zelenska’s appearance in Washington last week.) Vogue — and, indeed, any outlet that allows the Ukrainian people to reach different swaths of the global population and influence sentiment — is one of them. As Ms. Zelenska and her husband, who founded one of the biggest television entertainment production companies in Ukraine before getting into politics, know.
By putting Ms. Zelenska on its cover, Vogue is furthering her role as the relatable face, and voice, of the struggle; bringing her up close and personal for the watching world. And by appearing in public, and raising issues in public, when her husband cannot, she is keeping her country’s needs alive in the international conversation at a time when other crises are vying for attention. She has, essentially, weaponized Vogue.
She said as much to the BBC when one of its interviewers asked her to explain the choice: “Millions read Vogue, and to be able to speak to them direct, that was my duty,” she said, adding, “I believe it is more important to do something and be criticized for it than to do nothing.”
Whatever you think of the actual piece, however you feel about the magazine in which it was published, you can’t dispute the fact that it once again put the war in Ukraine in the headlines — and in the minds of people who may not have been following it as closely as others. In that context, her interview is not just an interview. It’s a piece of battle strategy.
“That’s the most I’ve laughed in five months!” chuckled war-ravaged Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The cause of his amusement was my entreaty that he finally publicly apologize to his wife, first lady Olena Zelenska, for not telling her he was going to run for president.
Instead, incredibly, she found out by watching the then-comedian announce it live on a New Year’s Eve variety show he was hosting back in 2018. “He forgot,” she explained, diplomatically, about what has turned out to be a spectacularly important, life-changing decision of historic proportions.
“You FORGOT TO TELL YOUR WIFE YOU WERE RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT!?” I exclaimed incredulously, as Zelensky smirked sheepishly. “What were you thinking?”
“This was a very difficult decision for our family,” he said. “I knew it would hit them, that it would be a tough call, it’s not a joke. These are serious matters. My family wasn’t prepared to let me go…”
“He understood that probably I wouldn’t have been fond of this idea,” Zelenska interrupted, “and that it would take very difficult negotiations with me. That is why probably each day he was thinking that, THIS is the day, that THIS is the moment, I should tell her. But he kept postponing it. And then it was on TV, I saw his New Year’s address and found out he was actually running!”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and first lady Olena Zelenska sat down with Piers Morgan for their first international televised interview together.
It was time for him to atone for his marital failing.
“Mr. President, this is your opportunity to apologize to your wife…,” I suggested.
So he did.
“OK. I’m sorry!” he said directly to Zelenska, and they both laughed loudly.
It was a very rare moment of levity for a couple who’ve been widely praised for sustaining the morale of Ukraine’s devastated people in their darkest hour.
They were sitting opposite me in a grand old government building, for their first-ever international television interview together.
And they couldn’t hide their excitement at seeing each other after a sustained period when a few snatched moments are all they’ve had, holding hands like the teenage high school sweethearts they were when they first met 26 years ago.
The Zelenskys joked with Morgan about their interview being a “TV date” for the couple amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Is this like a TV date?” I joked to Zelenska.
“Yes!” she replied. “Thank you for this TV date! Volodymyr has been living at his workplace. I am with the children, but we are in another place. But all of the Ukrainian people are in this situation — too many are separated, and all of us are waiting for and waiting for normal life — to be reunited again and just to lead normal lives like ordinary people live.”
Zelensky agreed: “This interview is one of the good opportunities for us to see each other. This is very important for us. As you know, we are all human beings, and we have to be strong. Sometimes we want to have someone close to be next to us and that is what you miss in these moments. Yes, I miss my children, I miss my wife. It is impossible to get used to it. Everything else you can get used to.”
“We have become more interested in each other. That is why I hope this challenge can make us more united.”
Olena Zelenska
A crisis of this magnitude, with all the myriad strains it brings, could break any relationship, but not the Zelenskys’.
“I agree with the theory that marriage gets stronger with challenges,” said Zelenska. “I think in our case it will be the same. We have become more interested in each other. That is why I hope this challenge can make us more united.”
Then she turned to her husband and asked: “What do you think about it?”
“My answer wouldn’t be different,” Zelensky replied.
Zelenska shook her head. “You should have your own opinion about it!”
Zelenska said their marriage has gotten stronger due to the crisis in their country.
He smiled. “When you are talking, your opinion has priority. What I would say is I don’t have any other experience. I’ve got only one wife and I am happy. I have one wife, one love and one family. I never got any feeling there was anything wrong with us in or in our relationship. Or maybe do you feel unhappy with me sometimes?”
“Not with you,” she replied, “but without you, I am very unhappy.”
“That is why I can’t notice any big changes,” he said. “The war is making our relationship stronger, that’s for sure.”
“We are managing?” suggested Zelenska.
“Yes, but managing is not the right word. We are in love with each other. OK?”
“OK,” she smiled.
Zelenska is a radiantly beautiful woman, which prompted me to ask her husband if he felt he was “punching above your weight?”
Zelensky looked bemused, until the meaning of the English phrase was clarified to him by an aide, and he replied: “I think I’m very lucky with my wife and family, and my children.”
He then confirmed a story I’d heard that he and two of his friends all proposed marriage to their girlfriends, including Olena, at the same time, and got married on three consecutive weekends.
“True!” he smiled.
Zelenska laughed as she recalled the unusual mass wedding agreement. “I remember three of you (guys) saying, ‘Let’s do it,’ and everything will be OK — and we agreed.”
Zelensky jokingly apologized to his wife for not telling her that he was going to run for president.
I’d come to Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv, five days before at the invitation of Zelenska to co-host her Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, which featured moving speeches of solidarity by many of the world’s most powerful and famous people, from America’s first lady Jill Biden to David Beckham and Richard Gere.
It’s not a trip many people are making right now.
In fact, millions of terrified Ukrainians have been fleeing their country to escape Vladimir Putin’s missiles and murderous thugs since the illegal Russian invasion five months ago.
Nor is it an easy trip.
My journey involved a three-hour flight from London to a town in Poland, then a 90-minute drive to a railway station near the Polish border, where I caught the special overnight presidential train that all world leaders like Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron have been forced to use since civilian air travel over the country was banned, arriving in Kyiv 11 hours later.
Zelensky said he still wants President Biden to visit Ukraine.
It’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of security.
I felt quite relaxed on the train until a stewardess suddenly appeared to urgently press down my cabin window black-out blinds. “We don’t want the Russians to see any lights,” she said matter-of-factly.
She had good reason to be fearful: Numerous trains have been attacked in this war and dozens of her rail network colleagues have been killed.
The center of Kyiv felt relatively normal with shops and cafes open, and locals milling around the streets, albeit amid a considerable military presence, but then I heard the air raid sirens that go off several times a day and it was an unnerving reality check that Ukraine remains a war zone and nobody is safe from Russia’s long-range cruise missiles. Before I interviewed the Zelenskys, I spent some time with other people with deep connections to this war, including the Klitschko brothers, both former world heavyweight boxing champions, now fighting for their country’s very existence, Wladimir on the front line, and Vitali as mayor of Kyiv.
The stories were horrifying, and heart-breaking, and represent just a tiny fraction of the misery so many Ukrainians have been enduring.
But their resolve is strong, their resilience extraordinary, and in their leader, Zelensky, they have a modern-day Winston Churchill rallying them to defy the modern-day Nazis.
The comparison is appropriate as both men were pint-size powerhouses, around 5 feet 7, and possessed of a fierce intelligence and sharp wit, dogged determination, resolute refusal to give up, and the ability to inspire whole nations with extraordinarily eloquent rhetoric.
As I walked with Zelensky outside before the interview began, I told him why I thought he was Churchillian.
“It seems to me the scariest thing about it is that he is in fact sane, and he understands what he’s doing.”
Volodymyr Zelensky on his opinion of Putin
“My grandmother was 19 when World War II started,” I said, “and often spoke of how the family used to sit around the radio, listening to Winston’s rally-cry speeches and it genuinely inspired them to believe they would beat Hitler against all the odds. You have been doing the same for Ukrainian people through television and social media.”
“Thank you,” he said, “but I would not compare myself to Churchill.”
Zelensky is the No. 1 target for the Russians and his family No. 2, and there have been regular plots against his highly prized life as merciless Putin tries to silence the man leading the resistance against him.
“It’s an unpleasant feeling,” admitted Zelenska. “I don’t want to think that they want to do this to our family. I’m trying to push these kinds of thoughts away. You can see what they did to civilians and what they are doing now, in any part of our country. I don’t understand what they’ve got in mind, and possibly we are in danger. I don’t want to allow these kinds of thoughts to go deep into my mind because I could feel scared, and this is not what we need right now.”
But the fear is real. Just getting to see the Zelenskys involves many layers of security including multiple sandbagged checkpoints, metal detectors, sniffer dogs, scores of heavily armed soldiers patrolling everywhere, snipers on the roofs, and his own elite personal protection team, who spent an hour with my production team working out exactly where they could sit, so they wouldn’t be seen on camera but would be close enough if anything untoward happened. Nothing is left to chance to keep the main man alive.
After they told me some heart-stopping revelations about the night Russia invaded, and the frantic, deadly days that followed, I asked the Zelenskys for their opinion of Putin.
“It seems to me the scariest thing about it is that he is in fact sane, and he understands what he’s doing,” the president replied. “I’d say that’s the scariest conclusion I can make — that he understands what he’s doing, he knows how many people he kills. He knows how many people were raped, and by who, and the number of children killed or deported. Therefore, I only understand one thing: The world allowed this situation to develop, it allowed such a person to emerge, with that ideology and attitude towards people. The world should understand that this result — this mistake, to allow this situation — is the responsibility of the whole world.”
The first lady couldn’t even bring herself to describe her contempt for the Russian dictator.
“It’s difficult to put it into words,” she said, her face etched with cold fury. “It’s not possible to understand how one crooked idea can throw the whole of mankind into the medieval ages. I really don’t have words, and I really don’t want to say anything aloud because normal words don’t exist to describe this.”
Zelensky said the “scariest thing” about Russian President Vladimir Putin is that he appears to be sane and aware of the destruction of his invasion.Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
I told the president that everywhere I’d been in Ukraine, the people react with horror at the thought of him doing any deal with Russia that cedes an inch of territory.
“They hate and it is understandable,” he replied. “When so many families have lost for example their neighbors, their children. Can Russia give a child back? There are no emotions, only one emotion, hate.”
Then he added: “We are not prepared to exchange or trade the territory of the independent state of Ukraine.”
Zelenska said she understood the hate.
“Any civilized person during this war would have terrible feelings, fear and hate towards the enemy. If you try to explain what kind of feelings the ordinary person has during the current war, I would tell them when they take their child to bed, try to imagine what is going to happen at night if they heard the sirens, and explosions next to the building where they live. What would they grab from their children’s bedroom and where would they run to if they recognize there is already a large queue of cars trying to leave the city. Are they going to take their pets with them? And imagine if you stayed there, and you are under occupation.
“Imagine the road you usually take your child to school with tanks on it. The grave of your close relative in your back garden because you can’t have a normal funeral to remember them. And imagine you have to search for water and your only source is a dirty puddle like it was in Mariupol. The medical service is not available. Just imagine you are in your home, and in two hours’ time, you are forced to deal with these kinds of problems just to survive and you don’t understand why this is happening.”
It was the most powerful illustration of the reality of war among a civilian population that I’ve heard.
As their 18-year-old daughter, Oleksandra, prepares for university, their 9-year-old son, Kyrylo, now wants to be a soldier.
“As a father, I would be proud if my son became a soldier, I can provide the support for him. I know he is wearing military-style clothing. He’s got quite a lot of weapons, not the kind of weapons we’ve got from our partners. He’s ready to protect his mother and our family.”
As for whether he really believes he can win this war against a far larger military force, Zelensky was unflinching in his certainty he would defeat Putin.
“Yes, I don’t only believe it, I know it will happen. We will win, we already showed the whole world that he can kill us but to conquer our people is impossible. He can occupy these towns and villages, but all of them would be destroyed. Because without ruining them, they will not be able to take those places.”
The first lady had just returned from a trip to Washington, DC, to plead for Congress to provide Ukraine with more tools to fight the war.
Yet despite donating over $40 billion worth of weaponry, President Biden still hasn’t visited Ukraine like so many other world leaders have done despite a personal invitation from Zelensky.
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden greet Olena Zelenska at the White House. Volodymyr Zelensky made a plea for President Biden to visit Kyiv.AP
And the Ukrainian leader wants that to change.
“Would like you like President Biden to come?” I asked.
“Very much!” he said in English.
Then reverting to Ukrainian, he said: “I believe this would be a great signal, a big signal. Everyone sees Ukraine’s attitude towards the US. This would be the highest support. And we had huge support from the first lady. She met with Olena, and it was the correct visit. Very, I would say, unexpected. I would say we were waiting for it a lot, but we didn’t expect it to happen. These are very important things.
“Then the trip, Olena will not say it for herself, I can say it — that was a very important moment, she did a great job. And her efforts really worked. There are quick decisions from the Congress and the White House that emerged after her speech and her visit. And these are very important things. And of course, the visit of President Biden to Ukraine would be the strongest signal which can be given in support of Ukraine.”
“Have you invited him?”
“Yes.”
“Are you hopeful he will come?”
“I don’t know, that is his choice. I mean, not even his choice, it’s his security, it’s their choice. I think if he has a chance, he will come.”
“Is there more America could be doing right now?” I asked.
Zelensky praised his wife’s speech to members of Congress during her trip to the United States.Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP
“As the president of a country that is in a war, I can tell you that the help would not be sufficient until the war is over, and until we win. A few times I’ve spoken with President Biden and I told him about our people and about our country, I said, ‘Forgive me if I’m quite firm in my position’ — maybe some things are not very diplomatic, but he gave me quite a dignified response, that he understands and he would do the same in my place.”
When I said there were a growing number of Americans who don’t think the country should be spending so much money on a war in Europe when there are so many problems domestically, he responded passionately:
“We are fighting for absolutely communal values. The war in Ukraine is still the war against those values that are professed in the United States and in Europe. Russian rockets can fly over a few thousand kilometers. And tomorrow they will have rockets that can cover tens of thousands of kilometers. What difference does it make? They kill civilians who do not agree with the politics of the president of Russia. So, this war here and now in Ukraine, and forgive me that I’m saying it so cynically, is for the safety of Europe.
“As long as we are resisting it, the integrity of the United States will continue, therefore we are giving our lives for your values and the joint security of the world. Therefore, inflation is nothing, COVID is nothing. Ask those people who lost their children, their peace, their property at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. Who is thinking about masks and COVID? Who is thinking about inflation? These things are secondary. The most important thing is to survive and preserve your life, your family, and your country. Therefore, at the moment we are doing this job, but the West has to help us.”
Throughout the interview, the Zelenskys turned down the use of a real-time translator device to understand what I was saying, indicating they both have a good grasp of English.
But my Ukrainian is severely limited — just two words, in fact, but they were all I needed.
“Mr. President, first lady, I salute you, we’re all behind you. We need you to win this war, keep fighting. SLAVA UKRAINI!”
“Glory to the heroes!” replied Zelensky. “Thank you.”
I don’t know if Ukraine can win this war against such seemingly difficult odds, but I do know the Zelenskys believe they will, and this remarkable couple’s fierce certainty fills me with the same hope they’ve instilled in their people.
Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska, fresh off her trip to the US to plead for more weapons as her embattled nation fends off invading Russian forces, began looking to the future Saturday.
Zelenska’s second annual Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, convened in Kyiv with virtual attendees from around the world, seeks to plant the seeds of an international reconstruction effort that will rebuild her country’s physical structures — as well as its human capital — once the war ends.
Jill Biden, joining virtually, and 21 other first ladies were in attendance, Zelenska said.
“We should stay united,” the 44-year-old Zelenska told the conference in Ukrainian. “We are inviting everyone, all those who support the victory over brutality, to join us.”
The summit aimed to organize plans for Ukraine’s postwar future, Zelenska said earlier this month as she announced the event.
Zelenska hopes to plant the seeds of a global reconstruction movement to move Ukraine forward in its post-war future.Office of the President of Ukrai
The conference began with a surprise in-person appearance by President Volodymyr Zelensky, who earned a sustained standing ovation from the crowd.
“Ukraine has the largest global support of any country,” Zelensky said, hailing his nation’s new status as a European Union candidate. “With peace, the rebuilding, the return of our men and women from abroad … we will be moving forward in a united Europe.”
Biden recalled her Mother’s Day visit to Ukraine, and her meetings with refugees there, in her two-minute message.
Zelenska’s summit comes a few months after her visit to the White House.Office of the President of Ukrai
“As a Ukrainian mother named Anna said to me, ‘There are no borders for our hearts,’” Biden said. The United States, she said, is “working to address the devastating physical and mental impacts of this war,” providing “primary and trauma medical care, food, clean water, and accessible shelter, as well as support to survivors of gender-based violence.”
Ukraine’s recovery is a necessary part of Russia’s defeat, declared UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss – the current front-runner in the race to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister.
“This is not a conflict which needs to be mediated, but one where the aggressor has to lose,” Truss said. “No one can feel secure until Russia retreats and is never able to perpetrate such appalling aggression again … Ukraine’s recovery will be a symbol of the power of freedom and democracy over autocracy.”
The conference, hosted by journalist Piers Morgan, included video appearances by actors Richard Gere, Ashton Kutcher, and Mila Kunis.
The event is moderated by journalist Piers Morgan.Office of the President of Ukrai
“This is not only a physical war, it’s a mental war,” Gere said. “It’s the heart of the people, it’s the soul of the people that will make Ukraine whole again. And even better, when this crisis is over.”
The gathering follows a July 4 conference in Switzerland where President Volodymyr Zelensky outlined an ambitious $750 billion reconstruction plan in the wake of a Russian invasion that has damaged or destroyed at least 80,000 buildings and killed more than 5,000 civilians, including several hundred children.
“This is Russia’s attack on everything that is of value to you and me,” Zelensky said. “Therefore, the reconstruction of Ukraine is not a local project—not a project of one nation—but a joint task of the entire democratic world.”
Direct damage to Ukraine’s physical infrastructure was estimated at $103.9 billion as of June 8, according to the Kyiv School of Economics.
Zelenska visited the White House Wednesday and gave an emotional address to Congress, where she pleaded for further American military assistance.
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska visited the White House on Tuesday, part of her high-profile trip to Washington as the Russian war in her country enters its sixth month.
Zelenska arrived at the White House just after 1:30 p.m. and was greeted on the South Lawn by President Biden and first lady Jill Biden. The president presented Zelenska with a bouquet of yellow sunflowers, blue hydrangeas and white orchids — reminiscent of the colors of the Ukrainian flag — and the first lady hugged Zelenska.
The group, which included Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova, posed for a photo at the south entrance to the White House, flanked by an American flag and a Ukrainian flag. They did not answer reporters’ shouted questions about what they would discuss.
Zelenska and Jill Biden had a private meeting, then held an expanded meeting with Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; Isobel Coleman, the deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); Victoria Nuland, undersecretary of state for political affairs; Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy; and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff.
On this Mother’s Day, my heart is with you, First Lady Olena Zelenska, and all of the brave and resilient mothers of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/tCMXCXhgiY
— Jill Biden (@FLOTUS) May 8, 2022
Tuesday’s White House visit was not the first meeting for Zelenska and Jill Biden. In May, over Mother’s Day weekend, Jill Biden made an unannounced visit to Ukraine and met with Zelenska in Uzhhorod, a city that lies on the border with Slovakia, as well as Ukrainian refugees.
At the start of their private meeting Tuesday, Jill Biden recalled the “sorrow and pain” of the war zone and told Zelenska her team had been working on ways to help with the mental health of Ukrainian mothers and children forced to flee their homes.
On Monday, Zelenska met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and USAID Administrator Samantha Power to “address the long-term psychosocial impacts of Russia’s war” in Ukraine, according to the White House.
Met today with Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska to discuss the immense humanitarian costs of President Putin’s war. The United States remains committed to helping the people of Ukraine defend themselves from Russia, secure justice, and rebuild their country. pic.twitter.com/r4XuTKHPP7
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) July 19, 2022
Earlier Tuesday, Zelenska visited the new Victims of Communism Museum in Washington to accept a human rights award on behalf of the people of Ukraine. In remarks at the museum, Zelenska noted that there were three photographs of Ukrainian dissidents who had been tortured or sent away for “questioning the cult of Stalin.” She compared those to some of the atrocities Ukrainians had faced in the past five months as a result of Russia’s invasion.
“Through all this suffering and pain, we send a strong warning to the war: Remember the darkest past can be easily beaten,” Zelenska said. “In certain places, the darkness has never faded away. It just figured out how to operate more advanced weaponry and use social media. And so we’re not only fighting for our freedom today, we are fighting so that Stalin’s great terror will no longer be repeated anywhere, ever, in the civilized world.”
The mention of Joseph Stalin was intentional. In the early 1930s, the Soviet dictator carried out policies that led to mass famine in Ukraine. An estimated 4 million people died during that period, known as the Holodomor, or death by hunger.
Cut off from food, Ukrainians recall famine under Stalin
On Wednesday morning, Zelenska is scheduled to address Congress to give an update on the security, economic and humanitarian conditions on the ground in Ukraine. The remarks will come less than two months after Congress approved a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine in May, which included $20 billion in military aid, nearly $8 billion in economic aid, nearly $5 billion in global food aid and more than $1 billion in combined support for refugees.
In a letter to Democratic colleagues Tuesday about Zelenska’s upcoming visit, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) highlighted the toll on women and girls that the war in Ukraine has taken, a topic she said has been of particular concern to the women in Congress.
“In the course of visits from Ukrainian leaders — from members of parliament to grass roots heroes — many of us have heard horrific stories about the brutal treatment of women and girls by Russian forces,” Pelosi wrote. “Indeed, we have sufficient evidence of kidnappings and deportations into Russia, rape of women in front of family members and even rape of little girls. … Let me be clear: rape of children cannot be a weapon of war. It is a war crime!”
At the start of the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that his family was a top target for Russian troops. In a rare joint interview with him in May, Zelenska said she and her two children did not see Zelensky for 2½ months after the war started, as they sheltered in an undisclosed location apart from him.
“Our family was torn apart, as every other Ukrainian family,” Zelenska said then.
Jeff Stein, Mike DeBonis and Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.
In a rare joint television interview, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and first lady Olena Zelenska said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has “torn apart” their family as it has for millions of other households across the country.
Zelenska, who has two children with Ukraine’s wartime president, admitted that she had barely seen Zelensky since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine. She said she and her husband have been mainly communicating by phone since then.
“Our family was torn apart, as every other Ukrainian family,” Zelenska said. “He lives at his job. We didn’t see him at all for 2 ½ months.”
Yet Zelenska was quick to dismiss the idea raised by one of the interviewers from the Ukrainian television network ICTV that the war had “basically taken her husband away.”
“Nobody takes my husband away from me, not even the war,” Zelenska replied.
The interview marked the second time the couple, who married in 2003, have appeared together since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24. During the sit-down, Zelenska said she was “grateful” for their joint television appearance because it meant they could finally spend time together.
“A date on TV, thank you,” she joked. Zelensky nodded alongside her.
Who is Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first lady and Volodymyr Zelensky’s wife?
In the early days of the war, Zelensky said he was Russia’s “target No. 1” and that his family was “target No. 2.”
“They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state,” he told Ukrainians in a February address, although he refused to flee. Instead, Zelensky took to the streets of the capital, posting defiant videos on social media that earned him global praise, while his wife and children hunkered down in an undisclosed location for their safety.
During their interview, Zelenska said she remembers waking up to “weird noises” as Russia began its invasion and noticing that her husband was not by her side. Zelensky was already awake and in the next room, putting on a suit.
“It has started,” she remembers him telling her before he left — words she said left her in a state of “anxiety and stupor.”
The war has raised the profile of Ukraine’s president, who has delivered video addresses to Ukrainians most nights and has spoken to parliaments around the world. He has appeared virtually at events from the Grammys to the Cannes Film Festival that opened last week.
Before becoming president three years ago, Zelensky was a comedian and actor who played the role of a president on screen. The 44-year-old also voiced Paddington Bear and, in 2006, won Ukraine’s version of “Dancing with the Stars.”
Zelenska, 44, is a screenwriter and has rarely been seen in public since Russia’s invasion. She was spotted for the first time earlier in May as Ukraine celebrated Mother’s Day, meeting in western Ukraine with U.S. first lady Jill Biden, who had crossed the border from Slovakia.
What to know about Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s TV president turned wartime leader
“We understand what it takes for the U.S. first lady to come here during a war when the military actions are taking place every day, where the air sirens are happening every day, even today,” Zelenska saidat the time.
“The people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine,” Biden told her.
Zelensky and his wife made their television appearance as Russia scrambled to rebound in Ukraine after suffering huge losses. Prospects for victory are fast dwindling for Vladimir Putin’s troops — despite early predictions that Moscow would sweep to victory largely unchallenged, The Washington Post reported.
“We broke the back of the largest or one of the strongest armies in the world,” Zelensky told the interviewers.
During the couple’s hour-long interview, Zelenska expressed hope that once the war is over she could return to focusing on issues that affect Ukrainian women, such as unequal pay.
“After the victory, we will remember the heroism of our Ukrainian women,” she said.
While the President’s focus has been on the military fightback against Russian forces, the First Lady has concentrated on humanitarian and children’s issues, working to raise global awareness of ordinary Ukrainians’ suffering as a result of the war.
Madam First Lady, given everything that is going on, how are you and your family holding up?
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. In the same way, as far as I know, all Ukrainians hold on.
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. I am personally supported by the fact that I try to protect and support others. Responsibility disciplines.
When you became First Lady, you pledged to make children a centerpiece of your work. How devastating has it been to see Ukrainian children, including your own, suffer through a war zone?
And so it was: Children and their needs were one of the main areas of my work, along with the introduction of … equal rights for all Ukrainians. Before the war we launched a reform of school nutrition, preparing for it for several years, to make it tasty and healthy at the same time so that children get sick less.
How do I feel now, you ask? I feel we were thrown years and decades back.
Now we are not talking about healthy food, but about food in general. It’s about the survival of our children! We are no longer discussing, as before, what is the best equipment for schools — [instead] education for millions of children is under question.
We can’t talk about a healthy lifestyle for children — the number one goal is to save [them] at all.
Half of our children were forced to go abroad; thousands were physically and psychologically injured. On February 23 [the day before Russia invaded Ukraine], they were ordinary European students with a schedule and plans for the holidays.
Imagine that you have built and renovated a house and just put flowers on the windowsill; and 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.
Tell us about the work you have been doing to support Ukrainian women and child refugees? What more can the world do to help on this front?
I am working in several directions now. In the summer, we managed to create the summit of the world’s First Ladies and Gentlemen, and now my colleagues are real allies in this.
First, we evacuate our most vulnerable — children with [cancer], [those with] disability and orphans — to countries that agree to accept them for treatment and rehabilitation. The main route passes through Poland, and from there, – to other European countries.
Secondly, we are importing incubators to Ukraine to support newborns in cities that are being bombed by Russians. In many hospitals there are power outages, and the lives of children are in danger. Therefore, we need devices that save lives without interruption. Two such devices have already been delivered and eight more incubators are planned to be delivered.
Third, we are accelerating the adaptation of refugees — children and their mothers — to the new location, because humanitarian aid alone is not enough: Children need accelerated socialization and school in a new place. In particular, this applies to thousands of children with autism who have found themselves abroad. We are now working to make it easier for them to access classes, otherwise their development will simply stop.
Together with the embassies, we are coordinating events in support of Ukraine — several international concerts have already raised money for humanitarian aid for Ukrainians.
Have you been able to see your husband since the conflict began?
Volodymyr and his team actually live in the President’s office. Due to the danger, my children and I were forbidden to stay there. So, for more than a month we communicate only by phone.
The whole world has been inspired by your husband’s wartime leadership of Ukraine. You married him in 2003 and have known him since you were both in university. Did you always know he had this in him?
I always knew that he was and would be a reliable support for me. Then he became a wonderful father and support for our family. And now he has shown the same traits.
He has not changed. It’s just that more people saw it through my eyes.
You have a 17-year-old daughter, Sasha, and nine-year-old son, Kyrylo. How have you explained the war to them? Are they staying with you?
Fortunately, the children are with me. And, as I said, when there is someone to take care of, it’s very disciplining. By the way, this also applies to the children themselves — they have grown dramatically during this time and also feel responsible for each other and those around them.
Nothing specifically needed to be explained. We are just talking about everything that is happening. 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. They look at the essence. As one young child said: “Why are Russians so mean to us? Apparently, they were beaten at home?”
You are reportedly the second highest target of Russian forces, after your husband. How do you keep your resolve in the face of such danger? What made you choose to stay in Ukraine?
For some reason I am constantly asked this question. But if you look closely, it becomes clear that every Ukrainian is a target for Russians: Every woman, every child.
Those who died the other day from a Russian missile [while] trying to evacuate from Kramatorsk were not members of the presidential family, they were just Ukrainians. So the number one target for the enemy is all of us.
Your husband has spoken directly in Russian to the Russian people, but it’s obviously difficult to reach them. Given the atrocities that have been committed to your people, do you have a message, particularly for Russian mothers and wives, that you think they should hear right now?
The level of Russian propaganda is often compared to Goebbels’ propaganda during World War II. But in my opinion, it exceeds [that], because in the Second World War there was no internet and access to information, such as now.
Now everyone can see the war crimes — for example, those committed by the Russians in Bucha, where the bodies of civilians with their hands tied simply lay in the streets.
But the problem is that the Russians do not want to see what the whole world sees, [in order] to feel more comfortable. After all, it is easier to say: “It’s all fake,” and go drink your coffee than to read the story of a particular person who died, look at her relatives and friends who are in grief.
For example, read the story of one of the victims [in] Bucha, a woman named Tatiana, who was shot by a Russian bullet, and her husband, who asked the invaders to take away the body, but was beaten and bound.
How to make Russians see this? I am more and more inclined to think that, unfortunately, not at all, they are blind in belief. They do not want to hear and see. I will not address them anymore.
The main thing for Ukraine today is that the whole other world hears and sees us, and it is important that our war does not become “habitual,” so that our victims do not become statistics. That’s why I communicate with people through foreign media.
Don’t get used to our grief!
You have used your social media accounts as a platform to pay tribute to Ukrainian soldiers and the Ukrainian resistance. How proud are you of your country — particularly of what you have called the “feminine face” of Ukrainian resistance?
On the first day of the war it became clear that there was no panic. Yes, Ukrainians did not believe in war — we believed in civilized dialogue. But 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.
I see examples every day, and I never get tired of writing about it. Yes, Ukrainians are incredible.
And indeed, I write a lot about our women, because their participation is everywhere — they are in the armed forces and the defense forces, most of them are medics. And they are the ones who take children and families to safety. For example, only they can go abroad. So, in some ways their role is even more diverse than men’s; this is more than equality!
Editor’s note: This Q&A interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
