28 July 2022
Olena Zelenska, the wife of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is the subject of a cover story for Vogue magazine.
Titled “Portrait of Bravery,” the cover sees Zelenska sitting hunched on a stair in an unremarkable outfit and with flat shoes. It is one of several images shot by star photographer Annie Leibovitz that include pictures of the first lady with her husband, and amid sandbags and a destroyed aircraft.
“These have been the most horrible months of my life, and the lives of every Ukrainian,” she told the magazine. “Frankly I don’t think anyone is aware of how we have managed emotionally.”
But the day after the cover story was published, a host of conservative politicians and pundits in the US and beyond ignited a social media storm over the images.
“While we send Ukraine $60 billion in aid Zelenskyy is doing photoshoots for Vogue Magazine,” tweeted far-right Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert. “These people think we are nothing but a bunch of suckers.”
There is no proof that the Vogue shoot was paid for with the weapons money, but that did not stop a wave of recriminations framed within an ongoing culture war between the right and pro-Ukraine liberals.
“I don’t remember Saddam Hussein’s wife being on the cover of Vogue when Iraq was illegally invaded,” stated another tweet.
Source DW
