WASHINGTON – First Lady Jill Biden paid an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Sunday and met with Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska as Russia continues to attack the country.
Biden crossed into Ukraine at Uzhhorod, visiting a school that is used as temporary housing and shelter for 163 displaced Ukrainians, including 47 children.
“I wanted to come on Mother’s Day. I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to end, and this war has been brutal, and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine,” Biden said.
The visit was one of Biden’s last stops on a Mother’s Day weekend trip to the region. She spent time with US troops in Romania and met displaced Ukrainian refugees in Romania and Slovakia. Biden’s trip to Ukraine also comes a day before Russia marks its Victory Day, the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany.
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Biden greeted Zelenska with a bouquet of flowers and a hug. The two first ladies have exchanged correspondence in recent weeks, according to a joint report. This is the first time Zelenska has appeared in public since Russia invaded the country on February 24.
Biden spent about two hours in Ukraine, where he had an hour-long private meeting with Zelenska and then met with children sheltering at school.
Zelenska called Biden’s visit to Ukraine a “very brave act.”
“Because we understand what it takes for the first lady of the United States to come here during a war when military actions are taking place every day, where aerial sirens are going off every day even today,” Zelenska said, according to a translation provided to journalists. .
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Zelenska said that Ukraine feels supported by the United States and by President Joe Biden.
“We all feel your support and we all feel the leadership of the President of the United States, but we would like to point out that Mother’s Day is a very symbolic day for us because we also feel your love and support during such an important day,” Zelenska. saying.
Jill Biden and Zelenska met with about 15 displaced Ukrainian children who were doing arts and crafts projects for Mother’s Day.
An official from the UN International Organization for Migration told reporters that the projects were recreational and psychosocial, in an effort to promote socialization among children now living in school and dealing with the trauma of war.
The children used cardboard and tissue paper to make bears, which represent the region around Uzhhorod. Both first ladies made their own bears, using white and yellow tissue paper, according to the group.
That was Biden’s last stop during his multi-day trip to Eastern Europe before returning to Slovakia to depart at Kosice airport.
Michael LaRosa, the first lady’s press secretary, said during a news conference on the plane that Biden first said he wanted to visit Ukraine in March for his spring break, but that the opportunity was not available at the time.
“Mother’s Day was something she thought would be special for mothers in Ukraine,” she said.
LaRosa said officials who landed in the region 10 days before Biden’s trip began notifying regional government officials of the first lady’s travel plans. At that time, the Ukrainians offered to arrange a visit with Zelenska.
While Biden had always planned to visit the school, the meeting with Zelenska was only confirmed in the last few days, LaRosa said.
LaRosa said that during their meeting, Biden asked Zelenska how she was doing as a mother and how she was handling the war.
Zelenska said she was thankful that “she gets to hold her children’s hand every night even though she can’t be with her husband,” LaRosa shared.
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Biden was quickly praised for his trip to Ukraine.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said Biden’s visit to Zelenska will bring “a lot of support and encouragement to Ukrainian women and children.”
“For her to go there on Mother’s Day to meet with the Ukrainian first lady, I think it sends a very strong and very positive message,” Thomas-Greenfield said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Thomas-Greenfield noted that she met with Ukrainian mothers during a trip to Romania and Moldova a few weeks ago and has seen how strong they are.
“Having the first lady there, encouraging them, supporting them, actually in Ukraine, I think it sends a strong message of support and commitment that the US government has to support the Ukrainians to move forward,” he said.
Contact Rebecca Morin on Twitter @RebeccaMorin_
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