“We did not want this war. We were forced to be victims of this war. But we do not agree to be victims”, said Thursday, December 15 on France Inter Olena Zelenska. Volodymyr Zelensky’s wife was questioned about her state of mind, ten months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Our courage is unchanged as we fight for our lives, for our freedom, for the future of our children.”
>> International conference of support for Ukraine: “We must immediately think about these questions of reconstruction”, according to an economist
The First Lady of Ukraine, however, tempers her remarks, the situation is difficult : “To say it’s not hard would be to lie.” But she still refuses to give up : “We have already been through so much that this resistance and this strength can only grow. […] To betray what we’ve been through and what we’ve been through for months would be truly shameful.”she says, sure that the outcome of the war will be Ukraine’s victory.
Help getting through the winter
Concerning the situation in the country, Olena Zelenska explains that it is solidarity between Ukrainians that takes precedence with the establishment in particular of “networks of ‘centers of invincibility’, for the most difficult situations”. She details : “When there is no place to warm up, where there is no connection, no electricity. It is the public authorities who organize it, but also the business community and the civil organizations, which can be at the initiative of these centers”, she detailed. These centers can be found “in police stations, in the lobby of public buildings, sometimes just in tents, in streets, parks, with large generators”. In these spaces, students who so wish can continue “to study ‘on line’, or schoolchildren doing their homework”.
Asked about the billion euros in donations promised to Ukraine by nearly fifty countries at the Paris Conference on Tuesday December 13, the First Lady said she was satisfied : “The results of this conference are very optimistic. We expect to be able to restore our energy capacities with this help, which will give us results for every Ukrainian inhabitant.” But we always need weapons according to her : “Yes, we need weapons, always more”.
