The First Lady of the United States, Jill Bidenmade an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Sunday, his spokesman said, where he met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Olena Zelenskain a school that is used as a shelter for displaced civilians, including children.
“I wanted to come on Mother’s Day. I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop and that this war has been brutal and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine,” Biden told the journalists.
Mother’s Day was celebrated this Sunday in both the United States and Ukraine.
Jill Biden was in Slovakia this week, among other things to meet with Ukrainian refugee families. Her visit to Ukraine was kept secret until the last moment.
Biden and Zelenska huggedand the US First Lady presented the wife of the Ukrainian president with a bouquet of flowers.
It is the first time Zelenska has appeared in public since the start of the conflict on February 24, according to a US official.
According to the same source, both had exchanged letters in recent weeks.
“First of all, I would like to thank you for a very brave act,” Zelenska told Biden.
“Because we understand what it means for the First Lady of the United States to come here during a war where military operations are taking place every day, where air raid sirens are going off every day, even today,” he added.
“We all feel your support and we all feel the leadership of the President of the United States, but we want to emphasize that Mother’s Day is a very symbolic day for us because we also feel your love and support on such an important day,” Olena added. Zelenska.
The two women’s closed-door meeting lasted about an hour and they then met with refugee children working on paper cutouts, accompanied by their mothers.
Biden then headed to the Slovak border.