Ukrainian First Lady: “Our Relationship Is on Pause”

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST: How do you specifically feel about your safety? We know you told us when we last talked over email in April, that at the beginning of the war, it happened, you barely were able to say goodbye to your husband, he sent you in the kids somewhere else in Ukraine to be safe. Now, I understand you can come back to Kyiv more often, more regularly. How do you specifically feel about yours and your family’s safety?

OLENA ZELENSKA, FIRST LADY OF UKRAINE (through translator): Yes. Fortunately, those two months when I didn’t see my husband at all, that’s in the past, I can see him sometimes in — for a short time and not very often, but I can physically feel him next to me. This isn’t normal. It’s not a normal relationship when children cannot see their father and have to talk to him on the phone. So, our relationship is on pause, just as it is for many — well, all Ukrainians. I would say that half of our population are apart and are not together. And we, just like every family, are waiting to be reunited, to be together again, to spend evenings, to have dinner together, to talk to the children about their things. And not only their children’s things, but my daughter, for example, is a young adult now. But we’re hanging in. We are — I like this image. We’re holding on, just like that cupboards in Borodyanka when the occupiers bombed a building, and bombed all the buildings there. And we saw this photo, one of the buildings, and there was a wall remaining. And there was that a wardrobe or a cupboard there that stood, undamaged. So, we’re holding on, we’re telling each other, how are you? I’m like that cupboard in Borodyanka. So, I’m trying to hold on just like that cupboard.