Democracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion The mothers of Ukraine need you

Every Ukrainian mom today is a part of a great wall holding off Russian aggression against the world.

By
May 11, 2024 at 12:51 p.m. EDT
Katerina, left, stands with relatives holding flowers at her parents' funeral in Hroza, Ukraine, in October. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post). (Heidi Levine/FTWP)
5 min

Olena Zelenska is the first lady of Ukraine.

Six-year-old Renat and 10-year-old Varvara were living in Mariupol — the city wiped from the face of the Earth by Russian bombing — when they were sent to an orphanage in Russia. They were torn from their mother, who had been taken prisoner.