As if on cue, the wail of the air raid siren drifts through the sunshine as we pull up at the presidential complex in Kyiv. Inside the bunker, the windows are boarded up. Sandbags are wedged between marble columns. The compound and its inhabitants are poised and prepared, including the first lady — Olena Zelenska.
“I would like to say, ‘I’m fine’ but no one can say this phrase now in Ukraine,” she states. “How are you?” The simplest of introductory questions that lands a bit limply under the circumstances. “We are all tense. We are all waiting for victory. We are trying, and I am also trying, to keep our hand on the pulse. To wait for good news and to not lose hope,” she adds, with a weary smile.
