Ukraine first lady Zelenska tells Davos of war’s horrors; ‘collapse of world as we know it’
- Olena Zelenska addressed the World Economic Forum meeting in Switzerland, telling political and business elites that Ukrainian families are being ‘traumatised’
- ‘We face collapse of world as we know it’; she told leaders that ‘not all of you are using influence … sometimes you use it in way that divides even more’
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska addressed the elite conclave of political and business leaders in Davos on Tuesday in a bid to rally support as her country readies for a second year at war.
Speaking from the stage in the Swiss resort town, she hammered home the point that Russia’s unprovoked invasion had “traumatised” families across the country, urging the World Economic Forum audience to imagine the war through the “eyes of the people whose lives have been brought into chaos”.
Of the war’s toll on ordinary Ukrainians, she said to picture the “parents who are crying in an ICU as doctors fight for the life of their wounded child” or the farmer who cannot return to work the land due to the danger of mines.
“We are facing the collapse of the world as we know it,” Zelenska said, arguing that Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens to overrun borders beyond Ukraine.
“You are all united by the fact that you are really influential,” she said. “But not all of you are using this influence, or sometimes you use it in a way that divides even more.”