Statement made by Ukrainian First Lady

[Fallonangel]

The Ukrainian First Lady has made a statement addressing the UK telling us while we are counting our pennies they are also counting their casualties.
Aibu to feel selfish moaning about my lifestyle reductions?

So victim blaming?

He made him do it

Yep. And any way they can keep the world's attention on their country and those people who are dying, fighting, being tortured, raped, abducted, having their children stolen and indoctrinated is fine by me.

Absolutely nothing wrong with that Vogue interview. Every Ukrainian I follow on Twitter (and it is a few) thought it was brilliant and many discussed how weirdly misunderstood it was in the West.

I think that Putin is a sick and possibly mentally ill man who has a very definite worldview (Russkiy Mir) and what is playing out is a result of that. He is a dictator with a corrupt regime and it doesn't take someone being a saint to be better than that. Zelenskyy would not have lasted 5 minutes after the invasion had the vast majority of Ukrainians not supported him and his actions.

There is no way that NATO was ever going to let Ukraine in. It is a corrupt state with a terrible human rights record ruled by an oligarch with extremely shady connections and backers.

But cozying up to NATO while in an active border dispute with Russia was never going to end well.

We can care about both.

Thinking about what the Ukrainians are going through won't stop people worrying about how they are going to afford to live this winter

It may well stop charity donations in general though

So what should
Zelensky have done?

Given Ukraine is a sovereign state and not a Russian dependency?

No, that commenter doesn’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, as per usual. Ukraine applied for NATO Membership Action Plan in 2008 and then they just sat on it and did nothing for six years. And then Russia annexed Crimea from them in 2014. It was only AFTER Crimea and the October 2014 parliamentary elections that Ukraine tried to make joining NATO a priority to protect themselves from exactly what’s ended up happening - Russia coming back for the rest of the country. They saw that no one gave a fuck what happened to them in 2014, and they knew they had to do something. What would you recommend @VirginiaWool? At least know your bloody recent history before commenting, and get the timeline right. Russia made the first move. Honestly. I despair sometimes. Are these threads put up by Russian bots or something? They misquote the actual quote (don’t even say what she actually said), and the entire situation around the quote (interview and a question answered about Russia, not a statement), and then they have comments like this; as if Putin decided to go after Ukraine because of NATO. No. Ukraine tried to join NATO to protect themselves from Putin.

No we aren't being singled out. If one reads beyond the very misleading headline, she was asked, by a UK interviewer who asked to interview her, about how British people concerned about their rising costs, should respond in the face of those costs in part being ascribed to the war in Ukraine. She very correctly pointed out that people in the Ukraine were also worried about rising costs AND about being killed or raped. She also very correctly pointed out that the Ukraine is not the cause of the war or the rising costs - Putin is.

As the first lady of the Ukraine, a country at war after an unprovoked attack by a major world power, it is her role to keep the interests of her country in the headlines and reminding people that their people are dying. God forbid that some foreign place most people can't point to on a map should play a part in making us uncomfortable or impact adversely on us.

Does nobody actually realise that the Ukraine is only Putin's first push, and if he gets away with this, he'll be coming for more and more territory? The man is dangerously insane, and his arrogance knows no limits. But by all means let's whine about our bills, and stay focused on our tiny island. Appeasement worked out so well fir us the last time we tried it.

And in other news, is the Ukraine also responsible fir the obscene profits posted by energy companies who are professing such serious concerns about our bills that they think the taxpayers should pay for the bills rather than them reduce their profits? The Ukraine and her people are not the ones profiting from war...

I think we should never have got involved anyway unless Russia started using chemical weapons or committed genocide. As it happens I think we are just creating thousands if not more unnecessary deaths.

Cheapbeersfilledwithcrocodiletears

Thank you

I thought I had stumbled on a parallel universe

One poster (Miss Pankhurst) even thinks Zelensky caused the war by trying to join the "UN"

Not since Feb/Mar have we seen these kind of posts.

Funny that

Well pain and suffering is relative isn't it?!

I mean, it's to cry over a dead pet, a lost job, a crisis of confidence. It's ok to feel sad over a lack of opportunity, a lack of sunshine, or anything you want to!

Just because there's worse out there, doesn't mean a circumstance isn't painful or that it doesn't need to change.

I'll continue to feel let down by our government and worried about money. I'll continue to feel fearful of the next hike in prices and what that means for my family.

And I won't feel guilty.

I feel for Ukrainians, of course I do, but that doesn't mean I can't feel pain or upset.

I also think she hasn't thought if the implications of her statement.

Ah Yes! The Famous Number One Target and Number Two Target
And yet-there have been many targets before them have there not, many victims before them.
They are nowhere near the theatre of war. Targets my arse. All part of the romantic wanna be Che Guevara posing of her husband wearing his green tee shirt but never actually going to war.
They won't be suffering in any way, either through losing their billions or being in danger. Tis bollocks.
And now she can't even bring herself to say Thank You. Thank you Uk. Thank you Europe.
Everyone knows she should have said thank you, not given us a massive fuck you. And yet, and yet, apologists come on to tell us what she really meant to say. If she had said what she really wanted to say, people wouldn't be starting to feel like fucking mugs...count your pennies.Cheeky cow.
I also recall her saying that she wished her son was old enough to fight. Two things here. Firstly, her husband is old enough to fight and isn't and secondly, I fear that if her son had been 15, near fighting age, she wouldn't have said it at all.

Back to counting my pennies for the freedom of Ukraine led by a woman who wipes our efforts to her arse.

You don't think the genocide is already happening?

She was asked a very pointed question, she didn't do a speech just to say that, as people would know if they watched it/read the article. So in context I don't think she said anything out of line, what she said was true as well, they're also facing spiraling costs with the other horrors on top.

Likely as we have a new incoming Prime Minister, it's a message asking for continued help.

I think it’s probably this! Also I think she and Zelenskyy probably feel they definitely have to keep the somewhat mercurial UK govt on side, as they desperately need support to continue, so probably in some ways feel they have to keep the Tory govt on side by helping them deflect blame.

The thing is, we needn’t be in dire straits. The government could easily soften the low for individuals whilst continuing to support Ukraine, as other countries have done.

Doubtless Ukraine’s govt (and through them the First Lady) know this, but it would be a risky game to say so.

Serious fuck off with that utter shite.

Just because someone doesn't choke down the party line that Russia is the new Satan doesn't make them a Russian bot.

If you want an echo chamber go join a group where no alternate opinions are allowed.

It certainly isn't going so well for the once feared Red Army, whose current incarnation is badly equipped, badly trained and (very) badly lead. Putin's mouthpieces aren't reduced to threatening us with Satan 2 missiles (even though they too would be wiped off the globe if they used them ) because it is going well for them.

@MissPankhurst: Well, it's complicated isn't it. Ukraine had agreed not to apply to the UN if Russia let them be. That all seemed to working than he decided he would like to join the UN and the war began.

How? Ukraine is a member of the UN. The UN recognised Ukraine as a member since 1945, as one of the legacy states of the USSR.

Can you link anything at all that says it's suddenly become controversial and resulted in the Russian invasion on February 2022?

And that is because the UK has sent them nearly 3 billion worth of equipment and training. I think only the USA has sent more and as you fit the UK into the USA many times over, that translates as the Ukraine having had a fucking lot of hardware from us without which they would have been wiped out.

Controversially, I think that when the First Lady decides to give an interview to be aired in the Uk, a great big fat Thank You should have featured it in it somewhere.

Thank you for the billions of equipment and thank you for the hardship you are about to endure. As First Lady of Ukraine, on behalf of my country, I say thank you.
Instead, we get a shrug of the shoulders and a so fucking what.
They are a fucking arrogant pair

"Controversially, I think that when the First Lady decides to give an interview to be aired in the Uk, a great big fat Thank You should have featured it in it somewhere."

Have you watched the full interview MissPankhurst? I didn't think it had been aired as yet?

I'm quite aware of what the West has sent them and what's more, why. "Thank you's" or otherwise from Mrs Zelenskyy don't even come on the radar.

Or perhaps we should let Ukraine fall because of this egregious ingratitude and take bets on where next Putin will cast his beady little eye.

You can't honestly be serious? I actually have no words to describe how revolting I find the attitude that she should be thanking the rest of the world in every other sentence for the limited support that's been provided so far.

And she's not wrong in saying that if support for Ukraine were stronger, the crisis wouldn't last as long. But have you actually listened to/read the parts of the interview being quoted? Because I can't see that she's said anything even remotely offensive. She was specifically asked if she had a message for Britain about soaring energy prices - a pretty shitty question which implied it was Ukraine's fault that we have soaring energy bills, and a completely tone deaf question when she's right, her country is facing countless casualties on a daily basis. I've got to admit that I would prioritise the dead and mulilated bodies of my own people over worries about energy prices in another country.

The BBC article quoting the interview states:

"Mrs Zelenska was asked what message she had for British people who are facing soaring energy bills in part due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the impact that has had on global gas and oil prices.

"I understand the situation is very tough. But let me recall that at the time of the Covid-19 epidemic, and it's still with us, when there were price hikes, Ukraine was affected as well.

"The prices are going up in Ukraine as well. But in addition our people get killed.

"So when you start counting pennies on your bank account or in your pocket, we do the same and count our casualties," she said."

What exactly is wrong here? She's right. They face the same problems as the rest of us, plus the trauma of invasion and ongoing war and daily dead and wounded.

Some of the comments on here are simply flabbergasting.

She was basically asked the UK is facing huge rises in their bills due to supporting Ukraine what would you say to them. That's a loaded and hideous question to be honest isn't it? What would an acceptable answer be do you think?