Who is Olena Zelenska and why does she want to meet Melania Trump? All you need to know

Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine and wife of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was in the audience full of VIP spouses when US First Lady Melania Trump hosted world leaders’ spouses in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday (September 23, 2025). During the event, Melania announced the launch of a new initiative on children’s well-being and artificial intelligence safety, “Fostering the Future Together.”

For Zelenska, who is Melania’s counterpart, the presence of the US first lady during the event was a fresh opportunity to highlight the issue of the Russia-Ukraine war and raise awareness about the thousands of children allegedly abducted by Russia since the war began in 2022.

She traveled all the way to New York with her husband, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, expecting to make a personal appeal to America’s first lady, who has made the well-being of children a key part of her platform, according to CNN.


Before trying to meet Melania on Tuesday, Zelenska, at an earlier event in New York, warned that at the current rate, it would take 50 years to return all of the Ukrainian children who have been taken to Russia. “These children cannot await a lifetime,” she said, according to CNN.

The first lady of Ukraine claimed that 1,625 children have been returned to Ukraine so far—a fraction of the overall number. “Behind every name are months of searching, negotiations, and risk,” she said, as quoted by CNN.

Melania on Tuesday called on leaders to help impose safeguards upon the spread of new technology. “Our nations benefit from advancements in technology—saving lives, expanding access to knowledge, connecting people, and of course, safety. Nothing comes before safety,” she said.

Following her brief speech, Melania immediately exited the room without greeting her counterparts as the reception continued. An adviser to the US first lady downplayed any significance or change to US policy. He called the meeting an informal hello to be polite. “The truth is that Mrs. Zelenska has reached out to Melania several times to set up a meeting, but there’s no bilateral meeting,” Marc Beckman, a senior adviser to the US first lady, said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”

“There’s nothing formal. As our first lady is very polite, she’s going to say hello today, but there’s no sit-down, substantive conversation set, no meeting set,” Beckman further stated.

Who is Olena Zelenska

Olena was born in May 1978 to her mother, Olha Kyiashko, in Kryvyi Rih. It is a Russian-speaking region that was then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, according to The Daily Mail. She is the current first lady of Ukraine. She was an academically gifted student in her initial years.

Olena Zelenska was named one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2023 by Time Magazine. According to The Daily Mail, she is a scriptwriter for Kvartal 95, which was founded by her husband and his friends in 2003. She graduated from Kryvyi Rih Technical University in 2000 with a major in Urban and Construction Management.

In a major step to restore the lives of Ukrainians hit by the Russia war, Zelenska established the Olena Zelenska Foundation in 2022. The foundation sought to bring in international assistance to help restore and improve the lives of Ukrainians, according to its website.

At the heart of our work are children and young people. Their one and only childhood, their formative teenage years are unfolding here and now, shaping the course of their entire lives. And it is vital that these years are filled with care, opportunities, and resources — everything they need for well-rounded development, according to the foundation’s website.

The website also revealed that the Olena Zelenska Foundation serves Ukraine’s children by overcoming deficits in access to education and development, supporting and fostering family-based care, and providing psychosocial support to children and youth.