LOVE NOT WAR
Zelensky’s wife Olena reveals astonishing way she discovered he was running for president as they open up on marriage
New BBC doc sees president's wife admit she secretly hoped he'd LOSE in his daring political bid
LOOKING directly down the camera lens, President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses his wife with an apology after weeks spent apart during the war with Russia.
It’s the first time that the former comedian - who became the leader of Ukraine in 2019 - admitted he may have made a mistake in not telling Olena that he was going to be in the running for the job.
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Instead, his wife, who he married in 2003, found out that Volodymyr, 46, was planning on becoming president through a campaign video shown live on air on their Christmas holiday.
Olena reveals: “We were on holiday, skiing with the kids, and in the hotel we celebrated the New Year.
“We turned on the TV, and we were sitting there, they'd filmed the New Year edition of his comedy show around the beginning of December, and then I see this message.
“Of course, my first reaction was, 'Couldn't you have told me?' He said, 'I didn't have time, I've been meaning to tell you'. You know, at first there is anger, aggression, and then somehow you live with it.”
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“I am sorry, I am sorry, my love,” Zelensky replies. “It was a difficult decision, but she understood I couldn't do it any other way, it was the decision of my life, this choice.
“Because even if she had the opportunity to change my mind, she couldn't do it.”
It’s a conversation that takes place in a new BBC Two documentary, The Zelensky Story, which details his rise to political prowess after years of performing with former Soviet comedy show KVN.
The husband and wife duo had to be interviewed separately - a regular occurrence for the two since the start of the war between Ukraine and Putin’s Russia in 2022.
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To keep their family safe, the First Lady, 46, remains with children Oleksandra and Kyrylo away from the front lines while Zelensky meets with world leaders and sticky by his troops.
It means that the President readily admits that the one-and-a-half hours that the BBC camera crews spend with Olena would be a “long time” by their standards nowadays.
Kursk siege was Ukraine's first move in plot to destroy Vlad's war machine, Zelensky warns as he calls for weapons
But for Zelensky, fighting the war is not just a matter of saving the country he loves - but also protecting his wife and young family from losing their home, and their dreams.
He tells the cameras: “I love Ukraine, I love everything about what I have, in Ukraine I have my wife, my children, my movies, everything that I have is Ukraine. That's why I have to.”
The couple met in their teens at school, where Zelensky - a self-proclaimed “rock and roll” youngster with long hair and earrings - instantly fell in love with his future wife.
He says: “One of the best moments in my life was when I met my wife - I looked at her, and loved.”
Naturally, she remembers things differently: “He never got tired of coming around, meeting and calling me all the time, and then somehow I noticed that when I was so used to it, that is when he went somewhere for a few days.
“That's when I realised I needed him. He's always been a clever boy.”
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'I want to preserve normality'
While Olena was always used to her husband being busy with his jobs on telly and comedy appearances, nowadays the couple have minimal time together, due to Zelensky’s busy schedule.
She continues: “I took the children, I never wanted to put him in a situation where Volodymyr had to choose between the safety of his family or the right decision for the state.
“We left Kyiv, we were not sure if we would ever see him again.
“We had phone calls, and we talked for a long time whenever we had the opportunity.
I have to [keep going]. I can't betray the people's choice and their belief in me.
Volodomyr Zelensky
“We used it just to talk, I can't say that we even talked about the war, he was more interested in how the children were doing, what they were thinking, and I wanted to preserve something that would remind us of normality.
“So now, I basically see him every week, not every day, of course, when we have time together, it's time to meet with the children, and he enjoys these moments.
“Every day I tried to keep smiling, to tell the children, 'It's all OK, he's going to make it, we're just going to be somewhere else for a while, and we will be back soon'.
“He is a man of challenges, when he is not competing for something every day, he does not feel alive.
“He is not afraid of a lot of challenges, he is a workaholic, and this may sound negative for many people now, but in this case, it is our salvation.”
Servant of the people
Becoming President was not Zelensky’s lifelong ambition. In another life, he was a comedian working alongside a band of scriptwriting friends on a TV show of their own.
When in 2015 tensions began to rise again between Russia and Ukraine, and the then-President of the country, Petro Poroshenko, was being investigated for money laundering, the group changed tact.
Why has the Ukrainian invasion of Russia been so successful?
By Georgie English, Foreign News Reporter
A DARING Ukrainian military push into Russia's Kursk region has become the largest attack on the country since World War Two.
Kyiv's forces have seized scores of villages, taken hundreds of prisoners and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians.
After more than a week of fighting, Russian troops are still struggling to drive out the invaders.
Why has Russian military been caught so unprepared?
A long undefended border
Russia's regions of Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod share a 720-mile border with Ukraine - including a 152-mile section in the Kursk region.
And it only had symbolic protection before Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.
It's been reinforced since then with checkpoints on key roads and field fortifications in places - but not enough to repel a Ukrainian assault.
The most capable Russian units are fighting in eastern Ukraine, leaving the border vulnerable to attack.
Element of surprise
Ukrainian troops participating in the incursion were reportedly only told about their mission a day before it began.
The secrecy contrasted with last year's counteroffensive - when Ukraine openly declared its goal of cutting the land corridor to annexed Crimea.
Ukraine ended up failing as troops trudged through Russian minefields and were pummelled by artillery and drones.
But in Kursk, Ukrainian troops didn't face any of these obstacles.
Battle-hardened units easily overwhelmed Russian border guards and small infantry units made up of inexperienced conscripts.
The Ukrainians drove deep into the region in several directions - facing little resistance and sowing chaos and panic.
Russia's slow response
The Russian military command initially relied on warplanes and choppers to try to stop the onslaught.
At least one Russian helicopter gunship was shot down and another was damaged.
Moscow began pulling in reinforcements, managing to slow Ukraine's advances - but
They wrote the hit Ukrainian film Servant of the People, which saw Volodymyr star as a school teacher turned country leader who is hired to take the presidency after a viral online rant about politics.
It was the reaction to this film from the Ukrainian public, as well as some Russians, that would get him first thinking about changing tact in his career.
Zelensky remembers: “Of course I had other dreams, another view of my future - I was not thinking about any politics and any mission. I wanted to find me in this big world.
"All of us thought how to help this situation, but didn't think about political future, it was not my ambitions in those times.
“Then, you had to make a choice. What is the price of your life? I wanted very much to do something, but I have got this chance to do everything.”
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Zelensky was elected in April 2019 in a landslide victory with 73 per cent of the vote in Ukraine - following months of campaigning from his now real-life Servant of the People party.
While he didn’t have to convince his wife running for the presidency was a good idea, Zelensky does now recognise that his dream to be leader of Ukraine has undoubtedly taken its toll on Olena.
She opens up for the first time in front of the cameras: “I have never said this out loud, but I had a faint hope that he would not win. But he won. He always does.”
“She’s smart, she understood [why I wanted to do this], but she was not ready to recognise it, she was afraid because of the new challenges, and now we see she was right,” Zelensky adds.
“There are a lot of challenges, but I understood everything, I knew it would be very difficult, but at this moment, you understand that it's not about difficulties, it's about [building] another life.”
'If you don't love, you grow tired'
While it might not appear that there’s much crossover between comedy and world politics, Zelensky is certain he’s been able to take some elements of his past life into his new one.
Most notable are the impassioned speeches he wrote for Servant of the People, which show his deep love for wanting to fix difficult situations.
Volodymyr said: “I really love the people because I communicated with them, and if you don’t love, you will get tired. Each day, you have to do something for the people.
“For Putin, it’s not about humanity, it’s people who just do the job without any emotions, like with killers, it’s just a job. The problem? That he liked it, very much.
“For me, it’s a part of my life, this job - I really love Ukraine, I want to remember this period of time, I want people to respect me, to be respectable and even to respect myself.
“[The loss of life] is the most difficult thing in my life, because when I make some of these decisions, I have a lot of questions to myself, all these questions are about lives. It’s a big challenge for me.”
But with Olena - who champions him as the “biggest optimist” - by his side, Zelensky has no plans to sit back and is pushing forward against Putin for as long as he can.
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“I have to [keep going]. I can't betray the people's choice and their belief in me,” he concludes.
The Zelensky Story airs Wednesday September 4 at 9pm on BBC Two.
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