STANDING STRONG

Zelenska at Antonov Airport, in Hostomel, with a group of female Ukrainian soldiers. ?VOGUE Magazine UKRAINE- Portrait Of Bravery: Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska BY RACHEL DONADIO - PHOTOGRAPHY BY?ANNIE LEIBOVITZ 26 July 2022 Read in British Vogue: https://apple.news/Al4icWeWYRXeDPF47BE-FCA

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At first glance I thought this picture was taken on the battlefield with male soldiers, before reading the title – at the airport with a group of female soldiers.?The last time I saw a woman on a battlefield was in the film Wonder Woman when she led the men across ‘no-man’s land’ fending off the enemy’s bullets with her arm bands.?

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With what I am learning about Olena Zelenska I would not have been at all surprised if she had been on the battlefield with male soldiers.?That I can now see the reality in the picture I think that Olena is the epitome of bravery standing with female soldiers.?I hope you do too.

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In a way it is horrifying to think of women on the battlefield, fighting alongside their men and quite honestly I am not sure that I like to see it happen.?On the other hand I accept it for what it is, there is no good reason why women shouldn’t women be there.?In some cases they face a battlefield scenario in their own homes so why not out in the field?

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That there has to be a battlefield at all is sad for me.?That things are allowed to deteriorate to such a low level shows the lack of diplomacy that brings situations to such a horrific ending.?

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What are your thoughts??

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What do you see?

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That Olena Zelenska is prepared to do this I think shows that she stands with her man just as he stands with her in complete equality, no male ego to spoil the pictures, simply showing LOVE for one another and demonstrating HOPE to and for the people.

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The message I think Olena is trying to tell in this picture is one of strength by standing with her fellow female Ukrainians as well as her man.

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Such a strong message tells the world that women have ‘arrived’

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We stand by our men as they stand by us.?If only that were the case the country and world over, what a difference it would make.

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Quote from the article itself:

“In Ukraine, tens of thousands of women have been on the front lines, including in combat, and Zelenska’s role has increasingly turned towards front-line diplomacy. She recently travelled to Washington, albeit on an unofficial, unannounced visit, and met with President Biden, first lady Dr Jill Biden, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. There, she also?addressed Congress, telling a bipartisan group of lawmakers that she was speaking as a mother and daughter, not just a first lady. She showed pictures of Ukrainian children who had been killed by Russian rockets, including a four-year-old with Down syndrome, before amping it up: “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.”

That’s a more heartfelt version of the message her husband has been making all along: that the war in Ukraine is about more than Ukraine – it is about who will uphold the values of the West and the post-war rules-based order. If Vladimir Putin can invade a sovereign country to fulfil his ambition to reunite the former Russian empire, where will he stop?

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I look at this picture and it gives me optimistic HOPE.?It tells me that there is no need for EGO or competition.?The whole world is in a mess and it will take every man and woman to clean it up and create a world that is fit for our children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.?

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I was brought up to do good in the world, to help other people and to leave this world a better place than the one I was born into.?All these years I thought I was doing that but it has only been in the past five years that I realised just how far off the mark the whole world had become as I was on my long slow downward slide to my rebirth and third life.?

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The gap between rich and poor is obscene.?There are now more people in poverty than there has ever been.?The rich 1% dictate and dominate where and when they can.??

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However, they really do need to watch out for the 99%.??Money alone is the root of all evil.?

They cannot take it with them when they go.?

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If they have any conscience at all they will change track and put it to good use – to help clean up the mess they have created.

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Surely the role model for the whole world to see and believe in is the one we see in Ukraine with Olena and Volodymyr Zelenskyy?

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This is a vision that I believe is on the horizon of our whole new world.?What I see in the picture is once again ‘power-with’ in supporting her fellow female Ukrainians.

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What are your thoughts??Have I been able to ‘raise your consciousness??If not, what will it take to do so I wonder?

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Can you identify with this? ?

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If on the other hand you see something I don’t, please let me know.?I await to have my Consciousness raised at any time – we will rise together in Harmony.

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Babs Hankins

?2022