PRESS RELEASE : Olena Zelenska holds video conversations with wives of heads of states and governments of Belgium, Austria, North Macedonia, Spain, Serbia

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 3 September 2022.

First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska continues her video conversations with representatives of various countries who joined this year’s Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen. During the last week, she talked to the wives of the heads of states and governments of Belgium, Austria, North Macedonia, Spain and Serbia.

The talks were aimed at consolidating and deepening cooperation between the countries in the humanitarian, cultural, educational and social spheres, as well as in the field of mental and physical health.

“As it was at the Summit, people are at the center of our conversations. We are talking about those projects for people that have already been launched and those that we would like to implement. By joining our efforts, we will be able to restore Ukraine’s human capital and learn lessons that will help overcome possible future global crises,” the wife of the President of Ukraine said.

Thus, in a conversation with the wife of the Prime Minister of Belgium, Annik Penders, Zelenska thanked for the fact that Belgium was one of the first to provide military aid to Ukraine, supported it in humanitarian and financial terms, and also sheltered more than 50,000 Ukrainians who, due to Russian aggression, were forced to leave their homes. In addition, Belgium accepted 17 seriously wounded Ukrainian servicemen for treatment and rehabilitation and is ready to further assist in this matter.

In a conversation with the wife of the President of the Government of Spain, Maria Begoña Gómez Fernandez, the First Lady of Ukraine highly appreciated the efforts of the government of this country to create favorable conditions for Ukrainians, above all, talked about the opportunities for continuing education for children and finding work for their mothers, as well as for quick organization of language courses for children and adults with the aim of their rapid adaptation. Currently, nearly 260,000 citizens of Ukraine live in Spain, of which 138,000 have been granted temporary protection.

During a conversation with the First Lady of North Macedonia, Elizabeta Gjorgievska, Zelenska thanked her for the humanitarian aid and shelter for more than 3,000 Ukrainian temporary migrants. In addition, within the scope of humanitarian aid, North Macedonia transferred almost 270 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Ukraine (food, clothing, medicine, hygiene products, etc.).

In a conversation with the wife of the Federal President of the Republic of Austria, Doris Schmidauer, Zelenska expressed gratitude for the fact that Austria shows solidarity with Ukrainians and continues to provide them with support. According to official data, Austria has granted homes to about 80,000 Ukrainians, of which 28,500 are persons under the age of 18. In addition, the First Lady of Ukraine offered Schmidauer to become the patron of the book project “Stories of a Better Time” in Austria. The project provides for the publication and reading of books by Ukrainian authors in Ukrainian, German and Dutch languages. They will be distributed in Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands. The interesting part of the project will be the opportunity to read the book on your own. According to the organizers, the initiative will help children overcome sadness, integrate into the environment of the host country and keep in touch with relatives who remained at home.

Having talked with the First Lady of Serbia, Tamara Vučić, the wife of the President of Ukraine thanked her for the help that Serbia provides to Ukrainian temporary migrants, as well as joint sports camps for children. For her part, Vučić said that the Republic of Serbia wants to support Zelenska’s initiative to purchase ambulance vehicles and will hand over two such ambulance vehicles to Ukraine.

Last week the First Lady of Ukraine held talks with the wife of the President of the European Council Amélie Derbaudrenghien, First Lady of the Republic of Latvia Andra Levite, First Lady of Belize Rossana Maria Briceño and the wife of the President of Iceland Eliza Reid.

The second Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen took place in Kyiv on July 23 in a mixed format: some participants joined it in video calls from Warsaw, Brussels, Washington and London. The main studio was located in Kyiv, on the territory of the Sophia of Kyiv National Reserve. The event was attended by 23 first ladies and almost 50 world-famous speakers. The summit was covered by more than 20 countries. The event was devoted to the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, namely: the restoration of its human capital. One of the main tasks of the Summit was to raise funds for type C ambulance vehicles. To date, it has been possible to raise more than $5.9 million.