President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s leadership and resilience since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been nothing short of inspirational. By his side, stands wife and First Lady Olena Zelenska.
The architecture graduate and comedy writer, 44, juggles her political role with a career in screenwriting and has teased her husband for forgetting to tell her he was running for president in 2019 (she says she only found out through social media).
But despite her shock and initial opposition to her husband’s candidacy (“I was not too happy”), she has since adapted to use her position for good causes, exhibiting all the familiar features of a successful First Lady: a wardrobe of elegant power suits, a passion for social issues and a relatable love story with her now-leader husband. According to insiders, the couple used to be classmates at college before romance blossomed while they were both working in comedy.
She also boasts a Vogue cover, flawless English and a CV to rival her spouse’s. She’s reformed nutrition in Ukraine’s schools, canvassed against domestic violence and made poignant, policy-changing speeches on gender equality.
From family life with their two children to her inspiring Insta-presence since the invasion started, this is everything you need to know about Ukraine’s First Lady.
Partners in comedy
Zelenska (maiden name Kiyashko) was born and raised in the same city as her husband: Kryvyi Rih in a Russian-speaking region of central Ukraine.
But they didn’t meet until college. The pair grew up with mutual friends but they first crossed paths while they were students at Kryvyi Rih National University in 1995, where she was studying architecture and he was a law student who dreamed of a career in comedy.
According to reports in the Daily Mail, Zelenska was dating someone else when she first met Zelensky at the age of 17. He was part of a local comedy troupe at the time, taking part in national competitions.
At the age of 19, Zelensky started a new comedy troupe, Kvartal 95, bringing Zelenska on as a writer (she had decided to change paths and move into writing by this point). The pair reportedly dated for eight years before marrying in September 2003 and moving to Kyiv.
After they were married, Zelenska went on to work as a comedy writer on Zelensky’s now-infamous 2015 political satire comedy show, Servant of the People, in which he - fittingly - played the President of Ukraine.
Whether she was attracted to her husband’s on-screen statesmanship or not, Zelenska has made it clear she always preferred life out of the spotlight, later telling press she preferred to be “backstage” and does not like to tell jokes or be the life of the party.
This is reflected in her decision to screen-write and stay behind the camera. She abandoned architecture and has instead continued her career in screenwriting, combining state business with part-time work for Ukrainian production company Studio Quarter 95.
Mother, writer, stateswoman
The couple’s first child, daughter Oleksandra, now 17, was born in July 2004 - less than a year after their wedding - and Zelenska says she’s already appeared in films. Their son Kyrylo, now 9, was born nine years later in January 2013.
When youngest child Kyrylo was six, Zelensky ran for president. Zelenska was strongly against it at first. "Frankly speaking, I aggressively opposed the start of this project," she once told reporters. "Because this is a very difficult move; it's not even a project, it's another direction in life."
Despite not having any political background or party affiliation, Zelensky went on to win the 2019 election, beating incumbent Petro Poroshenko with more than 73 per cent of votes, and his wife has stepped into her new position in the spotlight dutifully and with grace.
"I am a non-public person. But the new realities [being First Lady] require their own rules, and I'm trying to comply with them," she told Vogue Ukraine, posing for photo calls and standing firmly by her husband’s side.
"I prefer staying backstage. My husband is always on the forefront, while I feel more comfortable in the shade. I am not the life of the party, I do not like to tell jokes. It's not in my character. But I found reasons for myself in favor of publicity. One of them is the opportunity to attract people's attention to important social issues."
Among those social issues is gender equality, a subject she spoke about in a highly-praised speech at the third Ukrainian Women’s Congress in 2019, leading her country to join the G7 international initiative on gender equality, the Biarritz Partnership.
In June 2020 she started an initiative to promote the Ukrainian language and she has also spent years overhauling the quality and variety of food in the country’s schools - her campaigning led to the country introducing new legislation on child nutrition.
"In Japan, for example, there is a nutritionist in every school that pays special attention to the nutrition of children with allergies, and the kitchens in schools are completely separated and sterile, like an operations room," she told Vogue Ukraine.
"I sourced numerous ideas and became convinced that making positive changes is real, you just have to sincerely crave something, and work hard."
Fashion icon
Bold colours, elegant power suits and championing small brands: Zelenska knows one role of a First Lady is to balance style with substance.
She’s been pictured with powerful female leaders, from the Duchess of Cambridge to Brigitte Macron, and has become something of a fashion icon herself, exhibiting a rotating collection of brightly-coloured trouser suits and representing Ukrainian designers including Ivan Frolov, ELENAREVA, Vita Kin, and Lake Studio.
"I am pleased when they ask me in New York or Paris who is the designer of my outfit. And they do ask me," she told Vogue.
"And it wouldn't be as exciting to name a major western brand, which they already know there, but how nice it is to promote Ukrainian designers to the world."
She might mix with royalty and world leaders, but she also makes a point of speaking to the everyday Ukrainian people, with down-to-earth comments on motherhood (”now a bathroom is my only retreat”) and Instagram posts showing a warm, human side - a quality that has come into its own since the unfolding of the Ukraine crisis.
On Valentine’s Day she shared a clip of herself in a hoodie as she and her husband kissed each other on the cheek, and her grid is littered with relaxed family and couple snaps alongside images of her work in politics and diplomacy.
A shot taken in June 2019 shows them as family of four with their two children, dressed in face paint and laughing in the garden.
Brave First Lady
Since the invasion Zelenska has upped her social media presence, sharing pictures of babies born in Kyiv bomb shelters and images of the Ukrainian flag with her two-and-a-half million followers.
"My dear people, Ukrainians!” she wrote alongside one of them. “I'm looking at you all today: everyone I see on TV, on the streets, on the internet. I see your posts and videos. And you know what? You are incredible. I am proud to live with you and in the same country.”
As First Lady, she has also spoken specifically to the women fighting for Ukraine since the Russian invasion. She also shares moving photos of Ukrainians whose lives have been blighted by the war, including images of young cancer patients who were forced to flee to Poland.
“Before the war (how scary and still unusual it is to say this), I once wrote that there are two million more women in Ukraine than men," she wrote on Instagram.
"Just statistics. But now it is taking on a whole new meaning. Because it means that our current resistance also has a particularly feminine face. My admiration and bow to you, incredible compatriots!"
Bravely choosing to keep his family in Ukraine, Zelensky recently described himself as the Russians’ “target No 1” and called his wife and their two children as “No 2”.
The family have been in hiding in Kyiv, refusing to disclose their precise whereabouts for safety reasons, but Zelenska has vowed not to “panic or cry”.
“I will be calm and confident,” she wrote on Instagram in the hours after the first attacks. “My children are looking at me. I will be next to them. And next to my husband. And with you”.
In July, she flew to Washington DC to give an impassioned speech to Congress where she received a standing ovation. Speaking in Ukrainian, which was translated, she thanked the US for its support but pleaded for more weapons. “I’m asking for weapons, weapons that would not be used to wage a war on somebody else’s land but to protect one’s home and the right to wake up alive in that home,” she said. “I’m asking for air defence systems in order for rockets not to kill children in their strollers, in order for rockets not to destroy children’s rooms, and kill entire families.”
She never even wanted Zelensky to run for president. Now, she and her husband face one of the greatest tests of leadership in history, with the eyes of the world firmly on them. If ever there was proof Zelenska has stepped up to the role, it is now.
