On Tuesday, Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, sent an open letter to the world’s media, documenting what she called the “mass murder of Ukrainian civilians.”

In recent weeks, Zelenska has used social media to emphasise her country’s suffering, but none have been as forthright as her most recent message, which closes with the rallying cry: “We will win. Because of our unity. Unity towards love for Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine!”

As her husband, President Volodymyr Zelensky has emerged as the face of Ukrainian resistance to Russia‘s invasion, Zelenska has grown more vocal online in order to support him and raise international awareness of their country’s suffering.

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When Russia invaded Ukraine for the first time on February 24, Zelensky stated in a video message that “enemy sabotage groups” had infiltrated Kyiv and that he was their primary target. The second target, he claimed, was his family.

For security concerns, the location of his wife and two children remain unknown. Nonetheless, Zelenska has been active on social media, motivating her people and supporting resistance to Russian soldiers while gathering international support. She has 2.4 million followers on Instagram alone.

The 44-year-old wrote the open letter on her numerous social media sites, as well as on the President’s official website, in response to an “overwhelming amount of media outlets from across the world” requesting an interview with her.

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She opened her emotional letter, titled “I testify,” by remembering the events of February 24.

“Tanks crossed the Ukrainian border, planes entered our airspace, missile launchers surrounded our cities,” she said.

“Despite promises from Kremlin-backed media channels that refer to this as a ‘special operation,’ it is, in reality, the mass slaughter of Ukrainian citizens.”

Zelenska emphasised the “terrifying and catastrophic” child fatalities, as well as the horrors of newborns born in bomb shelters and highways “flooded” with refugees.

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Zelenska was born in February 1978 and met her future husband at the Kryvyi Rih Gymnasium high school in Kryvyi Rih, the southern Ukrainian city where they both grew up, according to the website of the Ukrainian Women’s Congress, a public platform that advocates for gender equality in government and wider Ukrainian society. According to her website profile, she later studied architecture at the Kryvyi Rih Economic Institute, graduating in 2000.

The couple married in 2003 and welcomed their daughter Oleksandra the following year. Kyrylo, their son, was born in 2013.

Zelenska, like her husband, pursued a career in show business rather than her academic subject of interest.

According to the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN, she assisted Zelensky in creating stand-up routines for the Russian TV comedy show KVN and then became a scriptwriter at the TV production business Kvartal 95 Studio, which she co-founded.

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Zelenska characterised herself as a “non-public person” who wants to be “backstage” in a lengthy interview with Vogue Ukraine in 2019, just after her husband surged to power in a landslide election.

The comic husband’s wife was not thrilled when he initially disclosed his political ambitions. In an interview with Vogue that included a beautiful picture session, she stated: “When I discovered those were the intentions, I was not pleased. I saw how things would change and the problems we would encounter.”

She talked about adjusting to living in public, but she also stated her commitment to protecting her children, stating, “Let them choose how they want to live.”

She has joined her husband on multiple official tours across the world in the three years after assuming the post of the first lady, including to the United States, Japan, and France. Meanwhile, her position has allowed her to devote her time to a variety of causes important to her heart, including “children’s health, equal opportunity for all Ukrainians, and cultural diplomacy,” she told Vogue.

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One of her projects has been to improve school meals for children, and she has gone on fact-finding expeditions to Latvia, Japan, and the United States, among other places.

Needless to say, she is now preoccupied with Ukraine’s fight for survival. She launched a separate Telegram group earlier this month to give tips on “how to act and survive in wartime.”

Hours after writing her open letter, Zelenska, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 in 2020, updated her Instagram page with a photo of young cancer sufferers on their way to safety and treatment in Poland.

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She wrote: “These are young cancer patients from Ukraine. Just yesterday, they were hiding from the shelling in the basements of clinics. Now they are crossing the Polish border on the way to find safety and, most importantly, to continue their treatments. No aggressor in the world can prevent them from winning the battle against the disease! “

In her open letter, she underlined her husband’s call for a no-fly zone, adding, “Ukraine is stopping the force that may forcefully enter your cities tomorrow under the guise of defending civilians.”

“There will be no secure place in the world for any of us if we don’t stop Putin, who threatens to start a nuclear war.”