Every Ukrainian mother today is part of a great wall holding off Russian aggression – Ukraine's First Lady

Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of Ukraine, has been telling people outside Ukraine about the different experiences of Ukrainian motherhood in the full-scale war. She says that every Ukrainian mother today is part of a great wall that is holding back Russian aggression against the world.

Source: Olena Zelenska in an op-ed for The Washington Post

The First Lady believes that right now, Ukrainian women are fighting for the survival of the democratic world order, taking on the roles of carers, doctors, soldiers and breadwinners.

Zelenska told the story of 6-year-old Renat and 10-year-old Varvara from Mariupol. The children were simply taken away from their mother when she was captured, and deported to an orphanage in Russia.

Their grandmother knocked on every door to get her grandchildren back on her own. She even crossed the Ukraine-Russia border to find the children. Although Renat and Varvara's mum returned to Ukraine as part of a prisoner exchange, the grandmother had to wait nine months before she saw her grandchildren again.

More than 19,000 Ukrainian children are still in Russian captivity. Their families are tormented by uncertainty.

Some mothers have managed to transform pain into hope, the First Lady said – such as Natalia Makovetska, who joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine after her son was killed in action. And she isn’t the only one – there are currently more than 60,000 female soldiers, all of whom joined the Ukrainian army voluntarily.

Other mothers are taking care of children who have lost their parents and homes – Tatiana Yurychko, for example, has fostered ten children. She believes that every child deserves to have a family.

But not all stories of Ukrainian mothers are happy. Zelenska reminded us that two months ago, Anna Haidarzha and Tatiana Kravets were found dead by rescue workers after a Russian missile attack on Odesa. The women were killed shielding their babies, 7-month-old Liza and 4-month-old Tymofii, with their bodies. Their older children were orphaned.

One of the most difficult challenges for mothers in Ukraine today is the feeling of helplessness, the inability to protect their children either physically or emotionally, Zelenska says.

"Now in Ukraine, every mother must steel themselves against the question, 'Mom, are we going to die today?'" she said.

The First Lady of Ukraine also shared her own "recipe" for being a mother in wartime: be sincere, and remain an example of love and care.

"But my only recipe for being a mom during the war is to be sincere and an example of love and care. It is to teach my children the need to care for others, because that is why we are all holding onto through the war. It is about hoping that the war will remain just an episode in the lives of our children. That they will enjoy normal lives after it to erase that trauma," Zelenska said.

Earlier, we told the story of Nataliia Tarabalka, mother of deceased military pilot and Hero of Ukraine Stepan Tarabalka, who has become a military chaplain in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

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