First Lady Biden makes a surprise visit to Ukraine - and meets Selenskyj's wife for her first public appearance
Created: 05/08/2022, 18:12
By: Anna-Katharina Ahnefeld
First Lady Jill Biden explains her surprising visit that she wanted to spend Mother's Day in Ukraine.
Ushorod - On Mother's Day: The wife of US President Joe Biden, Jill Biden, made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Sunday (May 8).
Traveling US journalists reported that the First Lady entered Ukraine from Slovakia on Sunday and stayed there for almost two hours.
In the city of Ushorod she met with refugees.
She also met Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, at the school used as accommodation for refugees.
Biden and Selenska had a bilateral conversation for about an hour.
Notable: It is Zelenska's first public appearance since the beginning of Ukraine's war of aggression.
A report in the
New York Times
According to the two women, the two women hugged each other in greeting, and Jill Biden presented Olena Selenska with a bouquet of flowers.
According to journalists traveling with her, Jill Biden said: "I wanted to come for Mother's Day.
I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war must stop.” The US stands with Ukraine.
Selenska thanked Biden for the "brave" visit and said through a translator: "Because we understand what it means for the First Lady of the USA to come here during a war, where military action is taking place every day, where even today the air sirens are still going on every day." sound.”
On Twitter, Joe Biden's wife wrote of her visit during the escalating Ukraine conflict: "On this Mother's Day, my heart goes out to you, First Lady Olena Selenska, and all the brave and strong mothers of Ukraine."
First Lady Biden makes a surprise visit to Ukraine – “wanted to come for Mother's Day”
According to the
New York Times
, the two women have been in contact for the past few weeks.
The renowned US newspaper also reported on a situation that illustrates the dramatic situation in the Ukraine war.
After the conversation, Biden and Selenska joined a group of school children for a craft project.
A child who entered the room shortly before the first ladies were reportedly checked by a security officer with a metal detector.
US First Lady Jill Biden (l) hugs Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukraine's President Zelensky, outside School 6, a public school that has taken in students displaced by the Ukraine war.
© Susan Walsh/dpa
In Slovakia, Biden had previously visited the border crossing to Ukraine in Vysne Nemecke with Prime Minister Eduard Heger.
In the morning, the First Lady visited a reception center run by the city in Kosice in the east of the country.
Then she was in a primary school, where Ukrainian women and children are housed.
A meeting with Slovak President Zuzana Caputova is scheduled for Monday.
Biden is currently on a multi-day tour of neighboring countries to Ukraine, which has been affected by the Russian war of aggression.
Biden was a guest in Romania on Friday and Saturday.
There she also visited US troops stationed in the NATO country.
