HEALING UKRAINE

OLENA ZELENSKA, THE FIRST LADY OF UKRAINE, got to bed late on the eve of the Russian invasion. Her kids were long asleep in the presidential residence south of Kyiv, a vast mansion of yellow stone that the family had always found a bit too grand, bordering on ostentatious. They had moved there in 2020 because the gated grounds contain a separate building to house their security detail. For days, Zelenska had sensed the bodyguards were nervous. The talk of war, she says, “was everywhere, just kind of hanging in the air.”

The government in Kyiv had urged civilians not to panic, but that had become harder as the Russians massed an invading force that surrounded Ukraine to the north, east, and south. Blogs brimmed with advice for would-be refugees. News programs showed instructions on what to pack while preparing to flee. On the night before the invasion, Zelenska made a note to get a suitcase ready for her family. But she never got around to it.

Neither did her husband Volodymyr Zelensky. The President of Ukraine had seen the intelligence reports—the satellite images, the intercepted phone and radio traffic—indicating the Russians were ready to attack. But he did not believe they would go through with it, and he did not urge his wife to get ready just in case. When they went to bed on Feb. 23, Zelenska says, she did not imagine