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The first lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska on Saturday said she was awaiting the moment her family could reunite after having gone months without seeing her husband.
“The family is separated. He lives at work. For two months and a half we didn’t see each other at all, we only talked on the phone,” she told a Ukrainian news outlet during a telethon event.
“We are waiting,” she added. “Like all families in Ukraine.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife Olena Zelenska attend the funeral of Leonid Kravchuk, independent Ukraine’s first president, at the International Convention Center Ukrainian House, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 17, 2022. Kravchuk led Ukraine to independence amid the collapse of the Soviet Union and served as its first president. He died on May 10 at the age of 88. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
The first lady was reunited with her husband, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for the first time in nearly three months this week when they attended the funeral of Leonid Kravchuk, Ukraine’s first president who helped the lead the country to independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In April, Zelenska described the final moments she shared with her husband after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his “special military operation” in February.
In an interview with Vogue, the Ukrainian first lady said she awoke the morning of the invasion between 4 am and 5 am to what she would later realize was an explosion.
Her husband was not in bed, but instead was getting dressed in his then usual attire of a dark suit and white shirt. This was the last time she had seen him wear a suit, a stark comparison to the green military attire he dons now.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center left, and his wife Olena Zelenska pay their respects at the funeral of Leonid Kravchuk, independent Ukraine’s first president, during a farewell ceremony at the International Convention Center Ukrainian House, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
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Zelenskyy told her simply, “It started.”
The first lady and her children, Aleksandra, 17, and Kiril, nine, were evacuated out of Kyiv.
It is unclear when Zelenska returned to Kyiv, but last month she met with First Lady Jill Biden in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod.
The surprise trip not only marked a rare solo trip for the spouse of a sitting U.S. president into an active war zone, but was also the first time Zelenska was seen in public since the invasion began.
Zelenska has supported her husband from afar and said in an interview last month with a Polish news outlet that the war has only shown to the world the kind of man Zelenskyy has always been.
In this March 8, 2022, image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office and posted on Instagram, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
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“The war has not changed him,” she said. “He has always been a man you can rely on. A man who will never fail. Who will hold out until the end.
“It’s just that now the whole world has seen what may not have been clear to everyone before,” she added.
Fox News’ Peter Aitken contributed to this report.
