"We will prevail": Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska graces Vogue's latest cover (PHOTOS/VIDEO)
Vogue‘s latest cover isn’t of a top model or an A-list celebrity, but a key frontline diplomat in Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first lady, graces the fashion and lifestyle magazine’s special digital cover in a striking image shot by acclaimed American portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz.
Zelenska, 44, sits on a staircase inside the presidential office compound in front of what appears to be a barricade of sandbags.
“We have no doubt we will prevail.” As the war in Ukraine enters a critical new phase, the country’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, has become a key player – a frontline diplomat and the face of her nation’s emotional toll: https://t.co/bPuNZd0b0w pic.twitter.com/KhdEFHwbYK
— British Vogue (@BritishVogue) July 26, 2022
An in-depth profile by journalist Rachel Donadio accompanies the cover, exploring the First Lady’s “no longer minor or ornamental” role during the battle and how she has become the face of her nation — “a woman’s face, a mother’s face, an empathetic human face.”
“These have been the most horrible months of my life, and the lives of every Ukrainian,” Zelenska told Donadio through a translator. “We’re looking forward to victory. We have no doubt we will prevail. And this is what keeps us going.”
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Donadio travelled to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, to interview the First Lady.
Zelenska took the reporter back to the day Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, and how since then, the longtime comedy writer has had to move into the limelight with her husband Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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Her public appearances have been speeches paying homage to Ukrainian children that have been killed to a crowd of grieving parents, and addressing US Congress, urging for more support.
Donadio also spoke with President Zelenskyy about how the war has affected his relationship with his wife and family.
“These have been the most horrible months of my life, and the lives of every Ukrainian,” Olena Zelenska said to Vogue. “We’re looking forward to victory. We have no doubt we will prevail. And this is what keeps us going.” https://t.co/biWR5JcvSb pic.twitter.com/NmyIhB0LKB
— British Vogue (@BritishVogue) July 26, 2022
“Like any ordinary man, I have been worried sick about them, about their safety. I didn’t want them to be put in danger,” he said in the interview.
“It’s not about romance. It’s about horrors that were happening here in Kyiv’s outskirts and all those horrors that are happening now in our country, in occupied territories.”
Here are some more images from the cover shoot.
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You can read the whole cover story here, or in Vogue’s October issue.
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