As King Charles was crowned last month, Ukraine’s first lady and Israel’s president were making plans.
Their conversation is set to come to fruition next month when Olena Zelenska travels to the Jewish state. Her host will be Michal Herzog, who extended the invitation to Zelenska when were both in London to attend the coronation ceremony.
The first lady, who was thrust into the spotlight when Russia invaded Ukraine last February, will discuss “post-trauma” initiatives with Israeli officials, it is understood.
Zelenska is also set to meet Ukrainian soldiers who are recuperating in Israel, according to The Times of Israel.
Wounded troops began arriving for treatment in the country last September. At the time, Israel’s ambassador to Ukraine, Michael Brodsky, said Israel would receive 20 Ukrainian soldiers seriously wounded during the war for treatment including the fitting of prosthetics and rehabilitation.
In May, six Ukrainian psychologists travelled to Haifa to attend a seminar on how to treat women suffering from domestic abuse and caring for traumatised children amid war.
Zelenska was first invited to visit Israel in April of this year, before the invitation was renewed by President Herzog and his wife in London in the run up to Charles’s coronation.
The trip follows a series of high-level discussions held by Ukraine’s first lady with world leaders. In July, she addressed the US Congress and met with President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.
The trio discussed “the United States’ continued support for the government of Ukraine and its people as they defend their democracy and cope with the significant human impacts of Russia’s war,” according to the White House.
Zelenska has previously said that Israel's resilience is a source of inspiration for Ukraine.
“It would not be an exaggeration to say that the past experience of Israel inspires the citizens of Ukraine,” she told the Kyiv Post.
“We see the strength and power of resilience of the Israelis in the difficult situation in which Israel has been for many years. Your resilience is an example for us.”
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is the first Jewish head of state of the eastern European nation.
In 2019, before taking office, he laid flowers on the grave of his Jewish grandfather who fought the Nazis in the Second World War.
Speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2020, he revealed that his grandfather's brothers and parents died in the Holocaust.
