Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife Olena Zelenska posed for Vogue magazine’s cover story in July, to be published in the October issue. In the article, the couple talked about their nearly 20 year marriage and missing their children, who they are separated from due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The President and First Lady were interviewed and photographed in Kyiv, at a time when the war has been going on for more than five months and has claimed thousands of lives. 

The cover will show an image of Ms. Zelenska with the title, “portrait of bravery.”

“As the war in Ukraine enters a critical new phase, the country’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, has become a key player – a frontline diplomat and the face of her nation’s emotional toll,” Vogue said on Instagram.

The images created intense controversy on social media. Many users saw the photographs as beautiful and powerful, but many others criticized the couple for what they said was an insensitive and distasteful spectacle in a fashion magazine.

“These have been the most horrible months of my life, and the lives of every Ukrainian,” Olena said when interviewed by Vogue‘s editor, Rachel Donadio. “Frankly I don’t think anyone is aware of how we have managed emotionally. We’re looking forward to victory. We have no doubt we will prevail. And this is what keeps us going.”

The interviewer described how she took an overnight train from Poland and arrived at the heavily-guarded presidential office compound, and passed through multiple security checkpoints and corridors lined with sandbags and soldiers. 

Zelenska, 44, spent the first months of the war in hiding, but has now become a public image that many people in the war-torn nation look up to and respect. She recently traveled to Washington and met with President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in an unannounced visit. She addressed Congress, showing them photos of Ukrainian children, including a four-year-old Down syndrome child, who had been killed by Russian rockets.

“I’m asking for something I would never want to ask for: I am asking for weapons—weapons that would not be used to wage a war on somebody else’s land but to protect one’s home and the right to wake up alive in that home, ” she begged. 

In one of the photos, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife Olena are standing close to each other and in another photo they are seen sitting close holding hands.

In another photo, First Lady Olena Zelenska is seen posing with three Ukrainian soldiers.

Another image shows Olena Zelenska posed on the stairs of a building, next to sand bags used in military bunkers.

The photographs were taken by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.