Jill Biden in Ukraine: Jill Biden, the United States’ first lady, visited Ukraine on Sunday (May 8) to express her support for the country’s people in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion, visiting a school that is serving as a temporary shelter and meeting Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska.
What is the US first lady doing in a war zone?
US Vice President Joe Biden has led efforts to impose economic sanctions on Russia in order to put President Vladimir Putin under pressure to end the conflict.
Although the US president has not visited Ukraine since the invasion, other top US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have.
Thus, Jill Biden in Ukraine to show support.
US first lady meets Ukraine’s first lady
According to a US official, Biden gave flowers to Zelenska, who was making her first public appearance since the Russian invasion began on February 24. The two women hugged each other.
Biden was brave, according to Zelenska, in making the trip.
The first ladies met at a school that was temporarily housing Ukrainian migrants. As, Jill Biden in Ukraine. Zalenska was the first to arrive and waited for Biden in her black SUV.
Before the women entered the school, Biden, who was wearing a wrist corsage for Mother’s Day, handed over a bouquet of flowers.
The women first met in a small classroom as Jill Biden in Ukraine, sitting on opposite sides of a wooden table and greeting each other in front of reporters.
Zelenska and her two children have been hiding out somewhere no one knows about in order to stay safe.
Jill Biden in Ukraine visit provided Biden with the opportunity to engage in the type of personal diplomacy that her husband desires.
When President Joe Biden visited Poland in March, he expressed disappointment that he was not permitted to cross the border into Ukraine to see conditions “firsthand,” most likely for security reasons. Even as recently as last week, the White House stated that while the president “would love to visit,” there were currently no plans for him to do so.
According to the first lady’s spokesperson, Michael LaRosa, the meeting came about after Jill Biden expressed interest in visiting the region, including the school where she and Zalenska met, and decided to spend Mother’s Day with Ukrainian mothers as Jill Biden in Ukraine.
He claimed that the Ukrainian government informed the US that Zalenska wanted to meet if possible, and that a meeting had just been finalized.
US officials, who declined to comment further because they were not permitted to discuss the first ladies’ private communications, said the first ladies had recently written to each other.
Following a private half-hour meeting, the first ladies assisted a group of schoolchildren in making tissue-paper bears for Mother’s Day gifts.
According to LaRosa, their conversation was “more of a personal mother-to-mother exchange,” and Biden was interested in how Zalenska was dealing “through that lens.”
Jill Biden in Ukraine to show support
Biden traveled about 15 miles into western Ukraine from the Slovak border town of Vysne Nemecke to Uzhhorod during a four-day trip to Europe to meet with refugee families in Romania and Slovakia.
The first lady is the most recent high-profile American visitor to the war-torn country, and the first member of President Joe Biden’s family to do so in recent weeks.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Kyiv last month, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was there on Saturday. Consequently, Jill Biden in Ukraine.
The first lady has just returned from a two-day trip to Europe, where she met with humanitarian aid groups and government officials in Romania and Slovakia.
Then, Jill Biden in Ukraine to show her support. She has also met with displaced Ukrainians in both countries, with a focus on women’s and children’s health and emotional well-being.
Biden’s trip to Ukraine marks the first time a US first lady has visited a war zone since Laura Bush’s secret 10-hour trip to Afghanistan in 2008. Bush first visited the country, which was at the time a war zone, in 2005. Bush’s visits highlighted her interest in and support for Afghan women.
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Jill Biden, accompanied then-Vice President Joe Biden on a Fourth of July trip to Baghdad, Iraq, in 2010.