Uzhhorod, Ukraine (AP) – Jill Biden left for Western Ukraine on Sunday, where she held a surprise Mother’s Day meeting with First Lady Olena Zelenska to express U.S. support for the oppressed nation as Russia tightens its war sanctions. in the eastern regions.
Biden traveled under the guise of a secret and became the last high-profile American to enter Ukraine during the 10-week conflict with Russia.
“I want to go for Mother’s Day,” said First Lady Zelenska of the United States. “I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war needs to end and that this war is brutal and the people of the United States are on the side of the Ukrainian people.
Biden spent about two hours in Ukraine, driving towards the city of Uzhhorod, about a 10-minute drive from the village on the Slovak border, where he inspected a border processing plant.
Zelenska thanked Biden for his “brave action” and said: “We understand what it takes for the First Lady of the United States to come here during the war, when battles take place every day, where sirens sound in the sky every day, even now. “.
The first two women gathered in a small class, sat at each other’s tables and greeted each other in front of reporters before meeting in person. Zelenska and her children are in an unknown place for their safety.
The school where they met was made a transitional residence for Ukrainian migrants from other parts of the country.
The visit allows Biden to pursue the kind of personal diplomacy his wife wants.
President Joe Biden, who called his wife on a visit to Poland after a visit to Uzhhorod, said on a visit to Poland in March that he was disappointed that he could not visit Ukraine to see “conditions in the first place. ” but it is. Not allowed, probably for security reasons. The White House said last week it was “nice to visit” the president, but it has no plans to do so now.
The meeting came after the first two women exchanged letters in recent weeks, according to U.S. officials, who declined to provide further details because they were not authorized to discuss the women’s personal communications.
On her way to school, Biden, wearing a Mother’s Day bodice, a gift from her husband, hugged Zelenska and gave her a bouquet. After a personal meeting, they joined a group of children who lived at the school and prepared some paper bears as gifts for Mother’s Day.
Biden’s visit was followed by a recent stop by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress in the war -torn country, as well as a joint visit by U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd. Austin in Kiev. .
His visit was limited to western Ukraine; Russia has focused its military forces on eastern Ukraine and no one has been killed. On the same day of Biden’s visit, a Russian bomb hit a school in eastern Ukraine, where about 90 people took refuge in its basement, killing dozens. Also on Sunday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Ukraine to meet with the president and “reaffirm Canada’s unwavering support for the Ukrainian people,” according to his office.
Previously, in the Slovak border village of Visne Nemece, he inspected a border processing plant, inspecting operations set up by the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations to help Ukrainians seeking refuge. Biden attended a religious service in a chapel, where the priest said: “We are praying for the Ukrainian people.”
Earlier in Kosice, Biden met and offered support to Ukrainian mothers in Slovakia who had lost their homes due to the Russian war. He assured them that the “hearts of the American people” were behind them.
At the city’s bus station, which is now a 24-hour refugee treatment center, Biden found himself in a long conversation with a Ukrainian woman who said he was trying to explain the war to his three children why he didn’t understand himself.
“I can’t explain why I don’t know myself and I’m a teacher,” Victoria Kutocha, who held her 7-year-old daughter Julie’s hands, told Biden.
At one point Kutocha asked: “Why?” As if looking for an explanation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24th.
“It’s very difficult to understand,” replied the First Lady.
According to information provided by the White House, the 24-hour facility is one of six refugee centers in Slovakia and provides an average of 300-350 people per day with food, showers, clothing, on-site emergency shelter and other service. .
Biden also enrolled in a Slovak public school where displaced students are admitted.
Slovakian and Ukrainian mothers gathered at the school for a Mother’s Day event as their children made handicrafts as gifts.
Biden walked from table to table and met the mothers and babies. She told some women she wanted to go and “say that the hearts of Americans are with the mothers of Ukraine”.
“I just want you to go and show our support,” he said before leaving for Wisdom Nemeck.
In recent weeks, border crossings have averaged less than 2,000 per day, or less than 10,000 per day since the Russian invasion on February 24, and most of this flow consists of daily -day cross-border traffic.
Biden is on a four-day visit to Eastern Europe to highlight US support for Ukrainian refugees and allied countries such as Romania and Slovakia, providing them with safe havens.
She spent Friday and Saturday in Romania, visiting U.S. troops and meeting with Ukrainian refugee mothers and children.
Through her travels, the First Lady of America followed in the footsteps of the former First Lady, who also traveled to places of war or battle.
Eleanor Roosevelt visited the military abroad during World War II to help raise the morale of the army. Pat Nixon accompanied President Richard Nixon on a trip to South Vietnam in 1969 and became the first First Lady to visit the battle zone, according to the First Lady National Library. He flew 18 miles from Saigon aboard an open helicopter, accompanied by U.S. intelligence agents.
Hillary Clinton visited the combat zone, which was closed to Bosnia in 1996. Four years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and during the U.S. war in Afghanistan, Laura Bush left for Kabul in 2005, while Melania Trump left. to Kabul in 2005. he left for President Donald Trump in Iraq in December. 2018.
Source: Huffpost
