Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska to Visit Harvard Next Week for IOP Event

Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska will headline a Harvard Institute of Politics event at noon on Tuesday to discuss the role of Ukrainian studies in the country’s war against Russia.

Zelenska’s talk at Harvard comes as she and her husband, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, visit the United States next week to meet with political leaders to drum up support for Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia and to address the United Nations General Assembly.

The talk will take place at Loeb House, the home of the University’s two governing boards, a departure from the usual location of IOP forums at the JFK Jr. Forum at the Harvard Kennedy School.

The event is co-hosted by the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

As Zelenska speaks in Cambridge, Zelenskkyy will hold meetings with political leaders in Washington, including Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Zelenska will speak at Harvard just two years after Zelenskyy delivered a virtual address to a packed crowd in the JFK Jr. Forum in September 2022. In his talk, Zelenskyy accused the Russian government of attempting to draft thousands of Ukrainians into the Russian military.

Zelenska will be introduced by IOP Director Setti D. Warren and History professor Serhii Plokhii, the director of the Ukrainian Research Institute.

Karen Donfried, a senior fellow at the Belfer Center, will moderate the discussion with Zelenska.

—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @williamcmao.

—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.