First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska took part in an event in support of women in Ukraine and their leadership, organized by the United Kingdom with the participation of Canada and Australia. The event was opened by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom, Yvette Cooper.
The President’s wife shared the stories of Ukrainian women who were killed or wounded as a result of Russian attacks on Ukraine.
“Two weeks ago, during a strike on Kyiv, 29-year-old Veronika Chuian was killed on her way to a bomb shelter. Her two young sons were injured. Eighty-nine-year-old teacher Alla Umanska miraculously survived – a missile hit her home in Kyiv’s Lukianivka district. She survived the Second World War. Now Russia’s war has left her without a home. These are just some of the stories of Ukrainian women. They had the right to live in their country and in their cities calmly and peacefully, like women everywhere in the world. But this is what Russia has done to them,” Olena Zelenska said.
The First Lady stressed that more than 5,000 women and girls have been killed as a result of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. More than 14,000 have been injured. According to the pilot project on urgent interim reparations, at least 331 women and 19 girls have survived sexual violence committed by the occupiers. This is only official data, as not everyone has been able to speak about what they have endured.
Olena Zelenska noted that one of Ukraine’s priorities is the implementation of the law on the social and legal status of survivors of sexual violence linked to the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, as well as urgent interim reparations.
“Such payments are currently funded not by Russia, as they should be, but by international partners through the Global Survivors Fund, because survivors should not be forced to wait. The very fact of such compensation gives them a sense of justice that every person who has suffered tragedy so deeply longs for,” she added.
The President’s wife called on international partners to ensure the sustainability of this mechanism, as well as to continue supporting survivor assistance centers established by Ukraine and non-governmental organizations that help women.
“The landmark UN Security Council Resolution on Women, Peace and Security has become for Ukraine not just a declaration, but a daily reality – at the cost that no one wanted to pay: thousands killed and wounded, millions forcibly displaced, and those who remained and took on the work in the country. It is essential that the response to this war be aligned with what was set out 25 years ago in Resolution 1325 – namely, justice for survivors. Because justice for one person today means a more just world for everyone tomorrow,” the First Lady emphasized.