Olena Zelenska meets with King Charles III and the Queen Consort

On day two of her visit to Britain, Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of Ukraine, met with King Charles III and attended a reception hosted by Camilla, the Queen Consort.

Source: Olena Zelenska on Telegram; Office of the President of Ukraine

Quote: "Together with His Majesty King Charles III, I met with the Ukrainian community at the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Cathedral. In August, the Cathedral, in partnership with the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, founded a unique hub – the Ukrainian Welcome Centre. The Centre helps people to find accommodation, settle in and establish connections with the community, and provides support and advice.

Since Russia has resorted to the tactic of energy terror, we realise that this winter will be the hardest in the history of independent Ukraine. So I’m grateful that at least some Ukrainians, especially elderly people and children, are able to wait out the cold season without running the risk of finding themselves in a blackout."

Details: King Charles III and Olena Zelenska met with refugees from Ukraine.

On 30 November the Ukrainian president’s wife also attended a reception hosted by Camilla, the Queen Consort, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Quote: "It was an honour for me to personally meet Her Majesty and have an opportunity to tell her what happened and is still happening in our territories temporarily occupied by Russia, what horrendous crimes the occupiers are committing against our women and children.

Ukraine is ready to make its contribution to the international efforts to prevent violence in conflicts faced worldwide. Sadly, we have painful experience of this. We are doing everything we can to overcome it with dignity and never have to tolerate it again."

Details: Zelenska also visited an exhibition called Russian War Crimes, organised by the Viktor Pinchuk Fund and PinchukArtCentre in conjunction with the President’s Office of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Ukrainska Pravda and the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers.

This exhibition has been presented in Brussels, Kyiv, Davos and New York. It consists of photographs from all over Ukraine, taken since the start of the war, which illustrate Russian crimes and present the faces and stories of Ukrainians who have suffered from them.

Zelenska remarked that the event has the same aim as her speeches to the UK Parliament and at the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) Conference – to draw the attention of Britain and the whole world to Russian war crimes in Ukraine, and to facilitate the prosecution of the perpetrators under international law at a special tribunal which must be set up.

The exhibition opening was attended in person by Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, and Viktor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist. Andrii Yermak, the head of the President’s Office, joined the opening ceremony online.

Olena Zelenska also held meetings with Steve Barclay, Secretary of State for Health, and Ben Wallace, Secretary of State for Defence.

Ukraine’s First Lady asked Wallace to consider expanding training programmes for Ukrainian soldiers "to enable them to use more modern military equipment".

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