Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin for calling her husband not really jewishin an interview with jerusalem post,
“It’s very embarrassing,” Zelenska said Tuesday. “I don’t know how, in a political context, you can discuss somebody’s ethnicity at all.”
Putin said earlier this week that his “Jewish friends” said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “is not Jewish; he is a stigma for the Jewish people.”
Andrey Yermak, Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, said separately on Tuesday that “unfortunately, we did not hear the condemnation of the Israeli government and its superiors.”
“I hope Israel will respond,” he said. “These outrageous words were spoken by a man recognized around the world as a dictator.”
Zelenska optimistic about Israeli early-warning system in Kiev
The Ukrainian first lady mostly avoided political or military topics, but she expressed hope that the rollout of israeli early warning system Air strikes can be intensified.
“I think it is up to Israel to decide whether it is giving enough aid to Ukraine,” Zelenska said. “We know that Israel has tremendous potential and we know that there is technology that we desperately need, but it is up to your society to decide whether you are giving enough.”
“I think it is up to Israel to decide whether it is giving enough” [aid to Ukraine],
olena zelenska
Israel has sent humanitarian aid to Kiev since the start of the war, and tests on a missile warning system in Ukraine began last month. However, in light of Russia’s continued military presence in Syria, Ukraine has asked for military assistance, which Israel has not provided.
Yermak called on Jerusalem to allow Ukraine to use Israeli defensive weapons against Iran-made drones used by Russia.
“No country except Israel has the capabilities that Ukraine needs to defend itself,” Yermak told a briefing to Israeli journalists. “This equipment will be used against Iranian weapons in Ukraine.”
Ukraine knows it shares an enemy with Israel – Iran – and as such, Yermak said, “we don’t understand why the government and Israeli politicians don’t understand that.”
Zelenska was in Israel this week to continue the joint project with him Israeli counterpart, Michael Herzog, wife of President Isaac Herzog, to help Ukrainians with mental health issues stemming from the war that began last year after Russia invaded. She visited various Israeli mental health centers, as well as wounded Ukrainian soldiers in Israeli hospitals, and went to Yad Vashem. In addition, he met Sara Netanyahu, wife of the prime minister.
“From the first days of the war, Israel was a model of resilience for us,” Zelenska said. “We can see how you live in battle.”
Zelenska wants to help Ukrainian soldiers recover
Zelenska said she hoped her country would adopt a “community resilience center” similar to that found in Israel. More than 2,000 Ukrainian mental health specialists have already been trained by Israel.
“In Ukraine, everyone who faces the public needs this training… We have a program called ‘Mental Health Gap’ and with the help of Mrs. Michael Herzog, we are setting up these programs. We Hopefully they will be very effective,” she said.
When asked what life is like as the first lady of a country at war, Zelenska said: “I don’t think my day is any different from the day of an average Ukrainian woman.”
“I don’t think my day is any different from the day of an average Ukrainian woman.”
olena zelenska
Zelenska said she starts her day by watching the news to see where Russian missiles hit overnight. She explained that a skyscraper in her hometown, which she remembered passing every day for years, had recently been hit and 11 people had died.
She described a feeling that many Israelis can relate to: “I know how it feels when you watch the news, trying to understand what happened, and until you get official confirmation Until then, you don’t know for sure” if your loved ones are among the casualties.
During the day, she said, she goes to the office and works on projects like mental health programs, reforming school lunches and helping victims of domestic abuse, and she gives interviews and makes phone and video calls.
Zelenska lives separately from the Ukrainian president, who sleeps in his office for her safety, while she returns each day to her two children.
“If we’re lucky, we meet for lunch at the office,” she said. “None of us can have any leisure or entertainment at this time.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainians are learning how to live normally while the war continues.
Zelenska said one-third of Ukrainian children have been able to go to school – and even they regularly have to run to air-raid shelters – while the rest are studying online in “an extended lockdown”. , which continues even as the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided. She said high schools are holding graduation parties in shelters or the ruins of their schools.
“I remember the empty streets in Kiev and the feeling of the apocalypse, but in the summer, the city started to be full of life again,” she said. “Sometimes, if you didn’t already know there was a war going on, you wouldn’t know it because the economy was on and people were going to work. People thought the banks would collapse and the economy would collapse, but Somehow we managed to cope with it.