Ukraine’s President and First Lady commemorate 9/11 victims in New York. Photos, video

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska laid flowers at the 9/11 Memorial commemorating the victims of September 11, 2001 attacks in New York.
As an Ukrinform correspondent reported, the President and the First Lady came around the South Pool, went to “John Scala” inscription at the memorial and laid a wreath at the Survivor Tree.

The ceremony was attended by Irena Skala-Lesiv, a sister of John Skala, a police officer of Ukrainian descent who died while saving people from the World Trade Center.

She told that John had worked on the night shift before the tragedy. The shift ended at 7 a.m. The terrorist attack happened already at 8 a.m. and he did not hesitate to start evacuating people.

Skala went into the towers on fire twice, checking if some people had stayed on the floors. He was supposed to return after the second go but entered the building for a third time to check if there were any people left. At that moment, the tower collapsed.

Before the tragedy, Skala worked for 12 years in the police and was a paramedic.

The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks resulting in the collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The attacks killed 2,977 people (not counting the 19 hijackers who also died), injured over 6,000 others. Twelve 9/11 victims were people of Ukrainian descent.