Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska asked Americans to continue supporting her country as hundreds of thousands of Russian troops are being sent to the front line.
“Please never stop your support — it’s crucially important for us, it’s vital,” Zelenska said in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America Monday. “We feel it, and we are extremely grateful for it.
“It’s not war between Ukraine and Russia, it’s war for values — for the world,” she said in English. “[It’s a] war for freedom, for human rights, for all that we love.
“We love our children, we love our homes, we love our homeland, and that’s exactly what Ukrainians are fighting for now,” she added.
Zelenska is in New York following her attendance at last week’s United Nations General Assembly, which her husband, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, addressed virtually.
While in the city, she also announced the creation of a charity foundation aimed at rebuilding Ukraine’s education and medical infrastructure.
“Our main goal is to help as many people as possible to return home [to Ukraine,]” she said.
“For them to be able to return we need to restore hospitals, schools,” she added. “We need to rebuild their homes.”
Zelenska’s visit comes as the Kremlin announced the draft of some 300,000 reserves and conscripts to bulk up the Russian invasion force after a successful Ukrainian counter-liberated hundreds of towns and set the supposed superpower on its heels.
“When the whole world wants this war to be over, they continue to recruit soldiers for their army,” Zelenska said of Moscow’s mobilization. “This is a bad sign for the whole world.
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“The main difference between our army and the Russian army is that we really know what we are fighting for,” she said.
