Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Photo: RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty
PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyyhas admitted an excruciating reality of war: Parents who’ve lost children will never find peace regardless of how the bloodyconflict between Russia and Ukraineends.
Zelenskyy — who hastwo kids of his own, 17-year-old Oleksandra and 9-year-old Kyrylo, with Ukrainian First LadyOlena Zelenska— spoke about the anguish he feels as both a parent and a president during aninterview with CNN’s Jake TapperonState of the Unionon Sunday.
“Are my words going to give them peace? No,” Zelenskyy said of Ukraine’s parents now grieving for their kids. “There’s just great pain.”
Asked about videoof a Ukrainian motherin agony after finding her dead son’s body in a well, Zelenskky called it “the most horrifying thing I’ve seen in my life.”
“I look at this, first of all, as a father,” he told Tapper of the footage,reportedly taken at a gas station near Kyiv, the capital. “It hurts so, so much. It’s a tragedy. It is suffering. I won’t be able to imagine the scale of suffering of these people, of this woman. It is a family’s tragedy. It is a disaster. It is the dreams and the life you have just lost.”
Neighbors wait for a free food delivery in Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 8.Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo
Later, Zelenskyy told Tapper his children, who remaininside Ukraine in an undisclosed location with his wife, are okay despite the fear and disruption war has caused. “Normal,” he said of how they’re doing.
Ukraine’s president acknowledged the will of his people to defend their country but also noted that as the war rages on more than six weeks after Russia invaded, the death and destruction is adding up.
“There are millions of people who want to live. All of us want to fight. But we all have to do our best for this war not to be endless,” he said. “The longer it is, the more we would lose.”
Russia has denied targeting civilians but Zelenskyy and other world leaders, including U.S. PresidentJoe Biden, have accused the invading forces and their leader, PresidentVladimir Putin, ofwar crimes, includinggenocide, igniting calls for investigations and, eventually, accountability.
“We can all work on how to rebuild apartments and houses and compensate them. How do you compensate for the loss of a child? I don’t think anyone in the world has an answer for that,” Zelenskyy told Tapper on Sunday. “There is a desire for justice through revenge and that at least the people who did this would feel the same pain, so that there will be some result, some outcome, so they are punished.”
Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo
At the same time, he admitted that an end to the war won’t guarantee healing for Ukrainians who’ve suffered unthinkable tragedy in a war that’s already taken hundreds of civilian lives, including children.
“I do not believe this wound can be treated or forgotten somehow,” he said. “I’m not sure anyone can help this woman. I’m not sure. I’m not sure.”
Russia’sattack on Ukrainecontinues after their forces launched their large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.
With NATO forces amassed in the region, various countries are offering aid or military support to the resistance. Zelenskyy has called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.
Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.
“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,“he told the European Unionin a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”
source: people.com
