Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was gifted an Icelandic sweater (i.e. lopapeysa) by Iceland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs on Sunday. “I’m proud and honoured,” the designer of the sweater told Iceland Review this morning.
“A strange request”
Writing on Facebook yesterday, Icelandic singer Salka Sól described an unusual phone call that she received from the Assistant to the Minister for Foreign Affairs recently:
“I was asked to knit, for the President of Ukraine, an Icelandic lopapeysa, which the President would receive as a gift from the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I couldn’t say no to such a request. I called my collaborator Sjöfn Kristjánsdóttir, and together we knitted two lopapeysur over the space of five days with good help from Eygló (Gísladóttir). Zelenskyy received the sweaters on Sunday … we hope that he’ll be spotted wearing them soon; most of all, however, we hope that the war will end.”
In an interview with Iceland Review this morning, designer Sjöfn Kristjánsdóttir echoed Salka’s sentiments: it was the most unusual request that she had received.
“We were very surprised, but at the same time, incredibly proud and honoured to be handed this assignment. Zelenskyy is an incredible person, whom we have watched – like the rest of the world – from the sidelines. To be able to contribute, on behalf of the Icelandic nation, is amazing; it’s something that I’ll never forget.”
As noted by Sjöfn, the Icelandic lopapeysa is a legally protected product, having received a Designation of Origin status from the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority in 2020; sweaters with the traditional decorative pattern can only be labelled as “Icelandic sweaters” if they are knitted by hand in Iceland using Icelandic wool. “This sweater meets all the criteria,” Sjöfn observed, adding that producing two sweaters in the space of just five days was a lot of work.
“Of course, when two hyperactive women come together – they decide to make two sweaters. We knitted incessantly. I had a sick child at home; I made good use of sleepless nights.”
Witnessing the destruction firsthand
As noted in an article on Mbl.is, Foreign Minister Þórdís Kolbrún, alongside other foreign ministers from the Nordic and Baltic countries, met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian ministers on Sunday.
The ministers discussed the situation in Ukraine, with representatives from the latter country calling for continued support. The ministers from the Nordic and Baltic countries also acquainted themselves firsthand with the damages wrought by the Russian military and laid a wreath of flowers in honour of the victims of The Holodomor (the Great Famine), which cost millions of Ukrainians their lives between 1932-1933.
“It’s important to witness the conditions of the Ukrainian capital with one’s own eyes,” Þórdís Kolbrún was quoted as saying in a press release on the government’s website, “even if our visit was brief. One is, first and foremost, faced with the terrible consequences of Russia’s incessant attacks on the country’s infrastructure. Keeping the electricity on, during the intense and tangible winter cold, is a constant battle: everything is covered in snow and the frost is biting.”
