She is now making up for lost time and has recently embarked on a high-profile US visit before hosting an international summit in Kyiv. While these initiatives have generated considerable publicity, Zelenska’s most eye-catching appearance has been in a photo shoot for Vogue magazine.
Zelenska’s Vogue portraits were taken by legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz, with the First Lady captured alone and together with her husband, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Leibovitz’s photos of Ukraine’s presidential couple are instantly iconic and have proved a viral sensation on social media. Zelenska’s appearance in Vogue has also sparked controversy, with some critics branding the decision tone-deaf at a time when the entire Ukrainian nation is fighting for survival.
Predictably, much of this criticism has come from Russia itself and from pro-Kremlin voices in the West, with numerous commentators pointing to Zelenska’s Vogue appearance as evidence that the scale of the war in Ukraine has been somehow exaggerated.
Nor has the backlash been limited to Ukraine’s geopolitical adversaries. Many Ukrainians have also voiced their unease over the images, with some accusing their country’s First Lady of engaging in inappropriate PR.
These negative responses to Zelenska’s Vogue interview are understandable but short-sighted. Crucially, they fail to recognize the importance of keeping Ukraine in the international headlines and misunderstand the nature of Olena Zelenska’s role as the First Lady of a country that finds itself at war with a superpower.
An attention-grabbing photo shoot with a global media brand is a smart move by Zelenska that plays to Ukraine’s strengths and enhances the country’s ability to punch well above its weight in the information war against Russia. At a time when scenes of death and destruction in Ukraine have lost the power to shock, she offers a compelling personal perspective that brings home the reality of the war to outside…
