US First Lady Jill Biden makes unannounced visit to Ukraine, meets counterpart Olena Zelenska

United States First Lady and President Joe Biden’s wife Jill Biden on Sunday made an unannounced visit to war-torn Ukraine, reported news agency AFP, quoting the White House. Jill arranged a surprise Mother’s Day meeting with first lady Olena Zelenska as Russia presses its punishing war in the eastern regions. Biden travelled under the cloak of secrecy, becoming the latest high-profile American to enter Ukraine during its 10-week-old conflict with Russia. 

“I wanted to come on Mother’s Day,” the U.S. 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 village that she toured on the border.

The two first ladies came together in a small classroom, sitting across a table from one another and greeting each other in front of reporters before they met in private. Zelenska and her children have been at an undisclosed location for their safety.

Zelenska thanked Biden for her “courageous act” and said, “We understand what it takes for the U.S. 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 school where they met has been turned into transitional housing for Ukrainian migrants from elsewhere in the country.

(With AP Inputs)

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