First Lady Olena Zelenska knew four-year-old victim from Vinnytsia attack

А four-year-old girl named Liza died as a result of Russia’s missile strike in the center of Vinnytsia on July 14. First Lady Olena Zelenska announced on her Twitter page that she knew the girl personally. She starred in the Christmas video of the wife of the President of Ukraine in 2021, where little Liza painted New Year’s toys.

The first lady wrote that she would not write the words she wanted to say to those who killed the child. Instead, she published a recorded video which featured Liza. 

“We met while recording a video for the Christmas holidays. The little girl managed to paint with dye not only herself and her dress, but also all the other children, me, the cameramen and the director in just in half an hour… Look at her, alive, please. Crying with her loved ones”, Olena Zelenska recalled.

Just before the Kalibr missile hit, a woman published a picture with a child. The footage shows little Liza walking next to her mother and pushing her stroller.

Liza died instantly and her mother’s leg was torn off. Currently, the woman is in intensive care and is understood to not yet know about the death of her daughter.

People have brought toys to the scene where Liza died and published a photo from the scene of the tragedy with the words: “We’re sorry, baby, we didn’t save you.”

A day earlier on July 13, Zelenska called on all those willing to write a letter to those who are currently under occupation. In her Instagram account, she said that she wrote a letter with words of support and love for Ukrainians in the temporarily occupied territories. 

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“My message is one of thousands that are collected as part of the “Letters of Love” project for people who were held hostage by the occupation regime. The front line separates us, but the connection between us cannot be broken. So we have to support Ukrainians in every available way and let them understand that this is temporary; that we haven’t forgotten about them and are fighting for them,” wrote Olena.

She also called on her followers to join the project and write words of support to Ukrainians, who are in dire need of it now.

On June 19, in an interview with The Economist, the wife of the President of Ukraine noted that Russian aggression led to the realization that the Mariupol tragedy could happen again at any time and in any country.

The first lady said that every Ukrainian must protect what they have, “survive and live at all costs.”

Many Ukrainians who fled to other countries have returned and are now trying to live a normal life. However, “the idea that this is an ordinary summer is an illusion,” she added, because the war is raging in the east, and atrocities continue.