Do we like them?

Do we like Olena Zelenska?

Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or acts turned up, and she has real good on the record, but the LGBTQ+ side is a gap rather than a plus.

Olena Zelenska grew up in Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine and went to the same school, in the same year, as her future husband. They started writing comedy together in their last years at university, and she became a scriptwriter for his company Kvartal 95, stepping off the stage to work behind the scenes.

She did not sign up for the political life. When her husband ran for president she was reportedly against it and said she would rather stay out of politics, which makes her wartime profile all the more striking.

On the harm test, we found nothing: no cruel remarks about any group, no conspiracy rabbit holes, no dodgy company. Her public causes are the opposite. In 2023 she told a justice conference in Lviv that the number of sexual violence cases by Russian troops pointed to a deliberate military policy and that condemning rape and war crimes must set a precedent. The gap, honestly, is LGBTQ+ issues: searches turned up no statement from her either way, so we can't hand out gold stars there.

Her main thread is children hurt by the war. In September 2025 she met Melania Trump in New York and spoke of shared values around protecting children and their childhood, and thanked her for a letter sent to Vladimir Putin. Where you land on the politics around that meeting is up to you, but the focus on kids is consistent.

The recent noise is mostly smears aimed at her. In May 2026 RIA Novosti reported, citing unnamed Russian security sources, that she was about to be detained, and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office both said they were taking none of those steps. Good people cop hate from bad actors, and this is a textbook case of the abuse aimed at her; none of it counts against her.