A significant escalation in the Russo-Ukrainian War that started in 2014 was the Russian army’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The world has been under the impression that something as heinous and significant as an invasion of another country would be a thing of the past as we approach 154 days since the invasion began, but let’s not deny the fact that they have also chosen to ignore some of the worst humanitarian crises of this century.

The Ukrainian crisis garnered much attention when it started roughly five months ago. In April of 2022, vogue did an exclusive interview with Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy.

In the interview Olena described the day of the attack as normal as any other day. “it was a normal working day and evening: the children returning from school, the usual household chores, preparing for the next school day” she said in the interview.

“We had been tense. There had been a lot of talks, everywhere, about a possible invasion. But until the last minute, it was impossible to believe that this would happen…in the twenty-first century? In the modern world? I woke up, sometime between 4 and 5am, because of a clunk. I didn’t immediately realise it was an explosion. I didn’t understand what it could be. My husband wasn’t in bed. But when I got up, I saw him at once, already dressed, in a suit as usual (this was the last time I’d see him in a suit and a white shirt—from then on it was military).”

So far a total of 12,227 casualties have been reported however according to the president the actual number of deaths exceeds 40,000 and the injuries are in the 10s of thousands. The latest update regarding the war is that airstrikes are being reported today from Odesa and Mykolaiv, oh and also President Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy and first lady Olena Zelenska just made an appearance together on the digital cover of Vogue. This appearance has been getting mixed reviews as some people question the seriousness of the issue currently being faced by Ukrainian citizens.

Here are some pictures from the shoot

Here are the mixed responses to the shoot that are currently trending on everyone’s Twitter.

The images were taken by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz and while it may be odd to see these pictures amidst the ongoing war, the pictures are not as glamourous as most vogue shoots and some believe they were actually shot in the hopes of bringing attention back to the situation at hand. The couple that has not met their children due to security threats look very tired in the pictures from the shoot. Some people have supported the couple with comments on Twitter like the following,