UKRAINE’S FIRST LADY DETAILS WAR’S TOLL ON THE ZELENSKYY FAMILY

‘Nobody takes my husband away from me,’ she says on TV

In a rare joint television interview, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and first lady Olena Zelenska said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has “torn apart” their family as it has for millions of other households across the country.

Zelenska, who has two children with Ukraine’s wartime president, admitted that she had barely seen her husband since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine. She said she and Zelenskyy have been mainly communicating by phone since then.

“Our family was torn apart, as every other Ukrainian family,” Zelenska said. “He lives at his job. We didn’t see him at all for 21⁄2 months.”

Yet Zelenska was quick to dismiss the idea raised by one of the interviewers from the Ukrainian television network ICTV that the war had “basically taken her husband away.”

“Nobody takes my husband away from me, not even the war,” Zelenska replied.

The interview marked the second time the couple, who married in 2003, have appeared together since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24. During the sit-down, Zelenska said she was “grateful” for their joint television appearance because it meant they could finally spend time together.

“A date on TV, thank you,” she joked. Zelenskyy nodded alongside her.

In the early days of the war, Zelenskyy said that he was Russia’s “target No. 1” and that his family was “target No. 2.”

“They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state,” he told Ukrainians in a February address, although he refused to flee. Instead, Zelenskyy took to the streets of the capital, posting defiant videos on social media that earned him global praise, while his wife and children hunkered down in an undisclosed location for their safety.

During their interview, Zelenska said she remembers waking up to “weird noises” as Russia began its invasion and noticing that her husband was not by her side. Zelenskyy was already awake and in the next room, putting on a suit.

“It has started,” she remembers him telling her before he left — words she said left her in a state of “anxiety and stupor.”

Zelenska, 44, is a screenwriter and has rarely been seen in public since Russia’s invasion.

EVGENIY MALOLETKA AP Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife, Olena Zelenska, at a ceremony to honor the late former Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk.