You can’t make this up.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and first lady Olena Zelenska took some time out of their busy schedule to pose for an Annie Leibovitz photo shoot in Vogue. Literally:
First Lady Olena Zelenska, Kyiv, Ukraine, July 2022 / For @voguemagazine To Be Featured In Vogue Magazine, October 2022 pic.twitter.com/dxMaWUbEHu
— Annie Leibovitz (@annieleibovitz) July 26, 2022
Here’s the opener of the article:
There is no script for first ladies in wartime, and so Olena Zelenska is writing her own. The wife of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a longtime comedy writer, always preferred to stay behind the scenes, while her husband, a comedian turned politician whose presidency may yet determine the fate of the free world, glowed in the limelight. But ever since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Zelenska has suddenly found herself center stage in a tragedy. When I met her on a recent rainy afternoon in Kyiv, where cafés were busy even amid frequent air-raid sirens, her luminous face and green-brown eyes seemed to capture the range of emotions coursing through Ukraine today: deep sadness, flashes of dark humor, recollections of a safer, happier past, and a steely core of national pride.
“These have been the most horrible months of my life, and the lives of every Ukrainian,” she said, speaking her country’s language through a translator. “Frankly I don’t think anyone is aware of how we have managed emotionally.” What inspires her, she told me, is her fellow Ukrainians. “We’re looking forward to victory. We have no doubt we will prevail. And this is what keeps us going.”
We assume this is also something we’re not allowed to question?
wartime vogue photo shoots. very serious. let’s keep sending ukraine weekly billion dollar aid packages to protect “democracy.” don’t question it. pic.twitter.com/MXVaW16K0y
— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) July 26, 2022
Let the mockery begin!
Vogue. It's over. https://t.co/TUXw2gLKIL
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 27, 2022
OOH, WHO IS SHE WEARING? https://t.co/A38svlxuTD
— Jon Gabriel (@exjon) July 27, 2022
Celebs turning Zelensky into a day trip prop and media glamorizing this war is going to do so much damage. They genuinely think everything is about them. https://t.co/QRfSFWFWn4
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) July 27, 2022
It’s really not a good look:
Massive amount of ukrainian soldiers dying every day, Zelensky : lets have a vogue shooting pic.twitter.com/BrNPYKZYR6
— Levi (@Levi_godman) July 26, 2022
And this:
While country is being devastated.
Madam First Lady of Ukraine, Elena Zelensky is busy Modelling In Kiev For Vogue Magazine.🤦♂️
What?!?!?!😣 pic.twitter.com/FKqBtBW3tc
— Gaurav Rajput (@nriherald_gc) July 26, 2022
Even supporters admit it’s not a good idea:
zelensky has done an extraordinary job in beating the russians in information warfare
vogue wartime photo shoot:
bad idea pic.twitter.com/8O9jjlL5Gn— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) July 27, 2022
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