First Lady Olena Zelenska met with the Director-General of UNESCO in Paris Photo 14.07.2026 00:37 Ukrinform
In Paris, the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, held a meeting with UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany, during which they discussed the further development of strategic partnership and expansion of cooperation.
According to Ukrinform, this was reported by the Office of the President.
The President’s wife thanked El-Enany for his personal support of Ukraine, UNESCO’s unwavering solidarity with the Ukrainian people, and assistance in implementing projects of the Olena Zelenska Foundation.
The First Lady specifically noted the installation of the “Dual Desk” at UNESCO headquarters on July 8. It symbolizes the story of millions of children whose childhood and education were destroyed by Russian aggression, and at the same time serves as a call to the international community to strengthen the protection of the right to education during wars and armed conflicts.
“When we conceived this project, we wanted to show (instead of thousands of words) the consequences of the Russian war for education and school life. And now the desk is visiting leading world institutions (including PACE in Strasbourg, the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva) to testify about over 4,000 educational institutions in Ukraine damaged or destroyed by Russia,” the President’s wife stated.
Zelenska reported that Russia has already damaged or destroyed about two thousand cultural heritage sites and over 2.5 thousand cultural infrastructure facilities in Ukraine.
“At the same time, our state not only receives support from international partners but also contributes to shaping global education protection policy: it is part of the High-Level Steering Committee for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 and the UNESCO expert group on the protection of education from attacks. Having experienced enemy destruction, we want to warn and protect the rest of the world from it,” she said.
The First Lady also visited the Museum of Architecture and Cultural Heritage of France, where she viewed the exhibition “Heritage Resisting. From Timbuktu to Odesa.”
The exhibition tells about the destruction of cultural, historical, and architectural monuments during wartime, as well as about resistance, protection, and restoration of cultural heritage.
The exhibition pays special attention to Ukraine. It documents crimes and simultaneously demonstrates the efforts of Ukrainian and international partners to preserve cultural and natural heritage. Representatives of the Ukrainian museum community, the Embassy of Ukraine in France, and international partners, with the support of UNESCO, participated in its preparation.
The First Lady emphasized that Europe’s candid view of the destruction in Ukraine is necessary for documenting crimes, punishing perpetrators, and restoring cultural heritage.
The President’s wife thanked the Museum of Architecture and Cultural Heritage of France and other French institutions already involved in preserving Ukrainian architecture. One such area is the educational and research project of the Chaillot School, which unites Ukrainian and European specialists around the architectural treasures of the Black Sea coast.
As Ukrinform reported, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Paris to participate in the Coalition of the Willing events.
Photo: OP
Paris UNESCO Olena Zelenska
Джерело: www.ukrinform.ua