UZHHOROD, Ukraine — Jill Biden made an unannounced visit to western Ukraine, holding a surprise Mother’s Day meeting with first lady Olena Zelenska to show US support for the embattled nation as Russia presses its punishing attack in the eastern regions, according to AP.
She became the latest high-profile American to enter Ukraine during the Russian attack, while Zalenska’s public appearance was her first since Russia’s military operations in Ukraine on Feb. 24
“I wanted to come on Mother’s Day,” the US first lady told Zelenska. “I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop and this war has been brutal and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine.”
Biden spent about two hours in Ukraine, traveling by vehicle to the town of Uzhhorod, about a 10-minute drive from a Slovakian border village where she had toured a border processing facility.
Zelenska thanked Biden for her “courageous act” and said, “We understand what it takes for the US first lady to come here during a war when military actions are taking place every day, where the air sirens are happening every day — even today.”
The first ladies met at a school being used to temporarily house Ukrainian migrants. Zalenska arrived first and waited in her black SUV until Biden arrived in similar fashion. The women stepped out of their vehicles and embraced, with Biden — who wore a wrist corsage for Mother’s Day — handing over a bouquet of flowers before they entered the school.
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