Lady First Lady, given all that is happening, how are you and your family coping? It’s like walking on a tightrope: If you start thinking about how to do it, you lose time and balance. So in order to hold on, you just have to go ahead and do what you do. In the same way, as far as I know, all Ukrainians are enduring. Many of those who escaped from the battlefields alone, who saw death, say that the main cure after the experience is to act, to do something, to help someone. I am personally supported by the fact that I try to protect and support others. Discipline of responsibility. When you became First Lady, you committed to making children a central part of your job. How devastating was it to see Ukrainian children, including your own, suffering in a war zone? And so it happened: 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 started a reform of the school diet, we have been preparing for it for several years, to make it tasty and healthy at the same time, so that the children get sick less. How do I feel now, you ask? I feel like we were thrown back years and decades ago. Now we are not talking about healthy eating, but about food in general. This is 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 in question. We can not talk about a healthy lifestyle for children – the number one goal is saving [them] not at all. Half of our children had to go abroad. thousands were injured physically and psychologically. On the 23rd of February [the day before Russia invaded Ukraine]were ordinary European students with a program and plans for the holidays. Imagine that you have built and renovated a house and you just put flowers on the windowsill. and now it is destroyed, and in the ruin you have to light a fire to warm yourself. This has happened to our children’s policies and to every family in general. Tell us about your work to support Ukrainian women and refugee children? What else can people do to help this front? I’m working in different directions now. In the summer, we managed to create the summit of the First Ladies and Gentlemen of the world and now my colleagues are real allies in it. First, we evacuate our most vulnerable – the children with [cancer], [those with] disability and orphans – in countries that agree to accept them for treatment and rehabilitation. The main route passes through Poland and from there – to other European countries. Second, we are importing incubators into Ukraine to support newborns in Russian-bombed cities. In many hospitals there are power outages, while the lives of children are in danger. Therefore, we need devices that save lives without interruption. Two such devices have already been delivered and it is planned to deliver eight more incubators. 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 rapid socialization and school in a new place. In particular, this applies to thousands of children with autism who have been found abroad. We are now working to facilitate access to the classrooms, 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 to Ukrainians. Have you been able to see your spouse since the conflict started? Volodymyr and his team really live in the office of the President. Because of the danger, we were not allowed to stay there with my children. So, for more than a month we only communicate by phone. The whole world is inspired by your spouse’s leadership in wartime Ukraine. You married him in 2003 and have known him since you were both at university. Did you always know that he had this in him? I always knew he was and would be a reliable support for me. Then he became a wonderful father and support for our family. And now it has shown the same characteristics. It has not changed. More people just saw it through my eyes. You have a 17-year-old daughter, Sasha, and a nine-year-old son, Kyrylo. How did you explain the war to them? Do they live with you? Fortunately the children are with me. And, as I said, when there is someone to take care of, it is very disciplinary. By the way, this also applies to the children themselves – they have grown dramatically during this period and also feel responsible for each other and those around them. Nothing needed to be explained specifically. We are just talking about everything that is happening. When I watch children’s interviews with Bouha or listen to my friends’ stories about their children, I realize that children do not understand everything better than adults. They look at the substance. As one toddler put it: “Why are the Russians so mean to us? Apparently, they beat them at home?” You are the second highest target of the Russian forces, after your husband. How do you maintain your resolve in the face of such risks? What made you choose to stay in Ukraine? For some reason they keep asking me this question. But if you look closely, it becomes clear that every Ukrainian is a target for the Russians: Every woman, every child. Those who died the other day from a Russian rocket [while] who were trying to leave 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 spouse has spoken Russian directly to Russians, but it is obviously difficult to reach them. Given the atrocities committed against your people, do you have a message, especially for Russian mothers and wives, that you think they should listen to right now? The level of Russian propaganda is often compared to that of Goebbels during World War II. But in my opinion, it goes beyond that [that]because in World War II there was no internet and no access to information, as there is now. Now anyone can see the war crimes – for example, those committed by the Russians in Bucha, where the bodies of civilians with their hands tied were simply lying in the streets. But the problem is that the Russians do not want to see what everyone sees, [in order] to feel more comfortable. After all, it is easier to say, “It’s all fake,” and go have your coffee than read the story of a certain person who has died, look at his 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 the body, but was beaten and tied up. How do you make the Russians see this? I tend more and more to believe that, unfortunately, not at all, they are blind to the faith. They do not want to hear and see. I will not address them again. The main thing for Ukraine today is that everyone else hears and sees us, and it is important that our war does not become “ordinary” so that our casualties do not become statistical. That is why I communicate with the world through foreign media. Do not get used to our sadness! You have used your social media accounts as a platform to pay tribute to the Ukrainian soldiers and the Ukrainian resistance. How proud are you of your country – especially of what you have called the “female face” of the Ukrainian resistance? On the first day of the war there seemed to be no panic. Yes, the 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. The political and other controversies that exist in every society immediately disappeared. Everyone gathered to protect their home. I see examples every day and I do not get tired of writing about it. Yes, Ukrainians are incredible. And indeed, I write a lot about our women, because their involvement is everywhere – they are in the armed forces and the defense forces, most of them are doctors. And they are the ones who take children and families to safety. For example, only they can go abroad. Thus, in a way, their role is even more different from the male one. this is more than equality! Editor’s note: This Q&A interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
