Ukraine’s first lady addressed the US Congress on Wednesday, demanding more weapons to fight what she called the “Russian hunger game” that kills children and divides families.
First lady Olena Zelenska told lawmakers: “I want to speak to you not as a first lady but as a daughter and a mother.
“A gratuitous war of terror is being waged against my country,” she added. “Russia is destroying our people.”
In a rare appearance with her first foreign husband before Parliament, Ms. Zelenska showed photographs of children whose lives were destroyed by war. Among them was Sophia, a girl from the Bucha suburb of Kyiv, who Zelenska said had lost her mother and arm in the war.
The First Lady of Ukraine met her future husband, Volodymyr Zelensky, while they were still students at different universities in their homeland, the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih. She later became a screenwriter at Kvartal 95, the production company Mr. Zelensky founded before he was in the comic acting business for the presidency – and later as a wartime president.
Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Ms. Zelenska, 44, focused on issues of women’s empowerment, literacy and culture in Ukraine. But the war pushed her into the center of global attention. In recent weeks, she has made more progress on social media and has used her profile to raise awareness of Russian crimes against children and elderly citizens.
In her speech, she also described a 4-year-old girl killed in Vinnytsia, in a missile attack in the central Ukrainian city that killed 25 people; a 5-year-old boy died in a shopping mall attack and a 3-year-old boy lost his leg and is learning how to use a prosthetic leg.
She asked members of Congress to provide more weapons, including air defense systems, before they set off for a break in August, so that “our children will not be killed.”
Her emotional plea received a 30-second standing ovation from congressional leaders. As Ms. Zelenska left, several members of Congress shook hands.
Representative Bill Pascrell, Democrat of New Jersey, draped a Ukrainian flag around his shoulder and signaled peace as Ms. Zelenska finished her speech.
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, said in a letter to House colleagues ahead of the speech that “the brutality of Russia’s act of aggression and its treatment of Women and children have appalled the American people, and these crimes have been of particular concern to women members of Congress. “
Zelenska’s speech came a day after she met US first lady Jill Biden at the White House. Meeting between two women, previously met in May during the unannounced visit of Dr. Biden in western Ukraine, highlighting how the war has reshaped their role in recent months.
In a Telegram post, Ms. Zelenska said she is seeking help from the US government and the business community for a program to provide prosthetic limbs to Ukrainian children who have stepped on land mines or been injured in shootings. break.
