Ukrainian President Volodoymyr Zelenskyy has become a hero to many across the world for his steel-spined approach to the illegal Russian invasion of his country and the ongoing war it sparked.
But a new Vogue profile of Zelenskyy's wife Olena Zelenska has shown there are limits to that admiration. The feature has not sat well with many, who feel a glamorous magazine spread is an inappropriate move for a wartime leader.
And unsurprisingly, the controversy seems to fall mostly along party lines, with far-right figures outraged by the profile and using it to smear Zelenskyy and Zelenska as mere opportunists.
The Vogue piece, which features photos from legendary photographer Annie Liebowitz and will be included in the magazine's October issue, gives a glimpse into the human struggles Zelenska and Zelenskyy and their country have faced.
\u201cFirst Lady Olena Zelenska and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kyiv, Ukraine, July 2022 / For @voguemagazine To Be Featured In Vogue Magazine, October 2022\u201d— Annie Leibovitz (@Annie Leibovitz) 1658935119
\u201cOlena Zelenska and Volodymyr Zelenskyy photographed by Annie Leibovitz, 2022.\n\nWhat a powerful image!\u201d— Bohdana Neborak \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Bohdana Neborak \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1658839726
In the profile, Zelenska speaks of the extraordinary toll Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion has taken on her and her country.
"These have been the most horrible months of my life, and the lives of every Ukrainian."
Zelenska also said she is firm in her resolve that her nation will win the war with Russia.
"We’re looking forward to victory. We have no doubt we will prevail. And this is what keeps us going."
Zelenskyy spoke to the magazine about the difficulty in being separated from his family while managing Ukraine's defense and often having to go into hiding to avert Russia-led assassination attempts.
“Like any ordinary man, I have been worried sick about [my family], about their safety. I didn’t want them to be put in danger."
"It’s not about romance. It’s about horrors that were happening here in Kyiv’s outskirts and all those horrors that are happening now in our country, in occupied territories."
But the profile has struck a sour note with figures like political scientist and consultant Ian Bremmer, who characterized the profile as a rare misstep in Zelenskyy's peerless talent for communication.
\u201czelensky has done an extraordinary job in beating the russians in information warfare \n\nvogue wartime photo shoot:\nbad idea\u201d— ian bremmer (@ian bremmer) 1658883488
For the record, Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister during Britain's entry into World War II, was featured in several magazines at the time, as was his successor Winston Churchill, who led Britain during the terrifying Blitz attacks by Nazi Germany.
On Twitter, the discourse on the Vogue spread quickly became a heated debate.
\u201cThe Zelenskyy Vogue photoshoot? Yikes\u201d— Aisha S Gani (@Aisha S Gani) 1658915128
\u201cSomehow Zelenskyy finds the time to shoot Vogue covers, attend Bono concerts and hang out with Ben Stiller. Some \u201cwar\u201d he\u2019s got going on over there!\u201d— LivePDDave \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 \ud83d\udea8 \ud83e\udd4a (@LivePDDave \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 \ud83d\udea8 \ud83e\udd4a) 1658929497
\u201cZelenskyy should be around the negotiating table - trying to put and end to this, not on the cover of vogue\u201d— Sophie Corcoran \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 (@Sophie Corcoran \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7) 1658935344
\u201c\u201cVogue Ukrainian War Olena Zelenska Zelenskyy photo shoot\u201d should just be words on one of those awful bot generated websites that is ruining the usefulness of Google\u2019s search function. Not a REAL thing. I feel like my brain is melting.\u201d— \ud83c\udfdc\ud83d\udd0b, fka \u2615\ufe0f (@\ud83c\udfdc\ud83d\udd0b, fka \u2615\ufe0f) 1658927956
But others saw it as a humanizing profile of the conflict and that Zelenskyy's media and PR skills have been instrumental in keeping world leaders engaged in helping the country fight back against Russia.
\u201cIf you are seriously criticising Zelenskyy for agreeing to a Vogue profile, it is almost certain you haven't understood any of this, and at best have been watching the past few months unfold without any clue as to what the Ukrainian President's PR strategy has been.\u201d— Oz Katerji (@Oz Katerji) 1658929871
\u201c@DefenceU @annieleibovitz Some criticize Olena Zelenska and Volodymyr Zelenskyy for appearing in #Vogue. They don\u2019t understand that we are in 2022, today the war is fought in all spaces. Tell what is happening in #Ukraine in any medium so that it reaches every citizen. https://t.co/uHQerT9iyC\u201d— Defence of Ukraine (@Defence of Ukraine) 1658866479
\u201cUkraine needs to keep talking to the world to counter fatigue and disinterest. Women (esp. Vogue readers) play a huge role and are a critical voting block\n\nKind of weird you don't take them seriously\u201d— Jakub Parusinski (@Jakub Parusinski) 1658904169
Others pointed out there is a long tradition of wartime leaders being featured in magazines for precisely this reason.
\u201cRegarding Olesa Zelenska and Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Vogue photoshoot, here's a similar one with Yvonne and Charles de Gaulle in 1941.\u201d— oldak (@oldak) 1658930623
\u201c@JalisaDanielle_ It\u2019s well own that leaders are never photographed during wartime. Absolutely unprecedented.\u201d— IG: @ Jalisa_Danielle (@IG: @ Jalisa_Danielle) 1658875940
And many Ukrainians themselves voiced anger over the American discourse about the Vogue spread.
\u201cAll these tweets by Americans re: Zelenska/Zelenskyy Vogue photoshoot have serious ownership vibes. OK yes your gov gave aid. It doesn\u2019t mean you own us. Ukrainians still get to have agency.\u201d— mary mykhaylova \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@mary mykhaylova \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1658979407
\u201cI promise this is the last tweet about that cover, but I think I just found my favourite condescending American take: some people are claiming that Zelenskyy and his wife didn\u2019t know Vogue was a fashion mag, they just heard it was big abroad and decided to say yes to the shoot.\u201d— Oleksandra Povoroznyk \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Oleksandra Povoroznyk \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1658926904
\u201cZelenskiy should've done a photoshoot of himself shirtless on a horse, instead of a Vogue one with his wife. \n\nThat way, the same people criticising him would currently be worshipping him.\u201d— \u0414\u0456\u043c\u0430 \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@\u0414\u0456\u043c\u0430 \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1658994690
It has now been just over five months since Putin's forces invaded Ukraine, and they have since conquered roughly 20% of the country.
Ukraine is preparing to shift its response from the defensive to the offensive, aiming to take back the port city of Kherson, the first city to fall to Russia.
