Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the people of her besieged nation “are fighting for our lives” as they battle against the Russian invasion.
"We are fighting for our lives...Our planning horizon is maybe a day or two -- we don't know what tomorrow is or the day after tomorrow," she told the audience on October 22 at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany.
Zelenska noted that there was renewed Russian shelling on the Ukrainian capital overnight.
She said such shelling and other effects of war have led to a daily search for normalcy, mentioning concerns for her children and the dangers facing her husband.
"We are constantly in other places -- the children have rarely seen their father, but they talk on the phone every day."
Her husband spoke to the same book fair through a video address on October 20 and urged authors to write about the "terror" unleashed by Russia's invasion of his country.
Ukraine is in the spotlight at this year's book fair, with numerous authors and industry figures appearing throughout the week at the country's large exhibition kiosk.
"Instead of importing culture, Russia imports death," Zelenskiy told the fair in his video address.
