First lady Dr. Jill Biden spent part of Mother’s Day making a surprise visit to Ukraine, where she met Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska in the far southwestern city of Uzhhorod.
Biden tweeted about the meeting on her official FLOTUS account.
The Kyiv Independent said Biden’s visit marked the first time Zelenska has been seen in public since the beginning of the war on Feb. 24. Her whereabouts have not been disclosed during this time due to security concerns. She is a top target of invading Russian troops.
CNN reported:
"I wanted to come on Mother's Day," Biden said to her Ukrainian counterpart, the two women seated at a small table in a classroom of a former school that is now a source of temporary housing for displaced Ukrainians, including 48 children. "We thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people this war has to stop. And this war has been brutal." Biden added, "The people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine."
Zelenska, who early on in the Russian invasion sent a letter to Biden, has exchanged correspondence with her American counterpart in recent weeks, US officials tell CNN.
"First of all, I would like to thank you for a very courageous act," said Zelenska, speaking through an interpreter to Biden. "Because we understand what it takes for the US first lady to come here during a war when the military actions are taking place every day, where the air sirens are happening every day, even today. We all feel your support and we all feel the leadership of the US President but we would like to note that the Mother's Day is a very symbolic day for us because we also feel your love and support during such an important day."
Biden is on the third day of a four-day visit to Europe. She traveled about 15 miles into western Ukraine from the Slovak border town of Vysne Nemecke to Uzhhorod, CNN reported.
She is the latest high-profile American to visit Ukraine since the war started. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a delegation of Democratic House members visited Kyiv on April 30 where they met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Earlier in April, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Kyiv.
The first lady spent the last two days in Romania and Slovakia where she met with humanitarian aid organizations and government officials as well as visiting Ukrainian refugees.
Her first stop on Friday was at the Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base in Romania, where she met with U.S. and NATO military leadership. She also interacted with U.S. troops stationed at the base and helped serve a meal to them for departing for the Romanian capital Bucharest.
Although she hasn’t made public appearances, Zelenska has focused on humanitarian and children’s issues, working to raise global awareness of the plight of ordinary Ukrainians as a result of the Russian invasion.
In a CNN interview via email last month, Zelenska said that due to the danger she and her two children have been forbidden to stay with her husband at the President’s office in Kyiv. She has only been able to communicate with him by phone.
In the interview, she described her humanitarian efforts to help Ukrainian mothers and children, which included arranging care for the most vulnerable children forced to flee abroad, among them children with cancer or disabilities such as autism. She has also been working to import incubators to support newborns in cities where the Russians are bombing medical facilities.
Zelenska concluded the CNN interview by saying:
“I write a lot about our women, because their participation is everywhere -- they are in the armed forces and the defense forces, most of them are medics. And they are the ones who take children and families to safety. For example, only they can go abroad. So, in some ways their role is even more diverse than men's; this is more than equality!”