First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska has declined the White House's invitation to attend Joe Biden's State of the Union address on Thursday.
The Washington Post reports it.
Jill Biden would have liked to sit next to Zelenska and Yulia Navalnya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, two women who are symbols of the resistance to President Vladimir Putin.
However, Navalnya's potential presence did not please Kiev: even though Navalny was an opponent of Putin, Ukraine has not forgotten his past statements about Crimea belonging to Russia.
Navalnya, however, also declined the White House's invitation.
The Ukrainian presidency then explained that the first lady rejected Joe Biden's invitation due to previous commitments.
“The Ukrainian Embassy in the United States recently received an invitation for the First Lady of Ukraine to participate in the US President's speech to Congress on March 7. However – explains Kiev – due to the events scheduled in the program, including the visit to Kiev of children from an orphanage, planned for some time, unfortunately the first lady will not be able to take part in the event".
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