US First Lady Jill Biden visited Ukraine on Sunday for a brief surprise visit, her spokesperson said, and met with her Ukrainian counterpart Olena Zelenska at a school near the Slovakian border. .
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“I wanted to come for Mother’s Day. I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war must stop,” she told reporters, saying “the American people stand with the Ukrainian people.”
Jill Biden was in Slovakia this week, in particular to meet families of Ukrainian refugees.
His foray into Ukraine had been kept secret until the last moment.
Jill Biden and Olena Zelenska hugged and the first lady of the United States presented a bouquet of flowers to the wife of the Ukrainian president.
This is the first time Ms. Zelenska has appeared in public since the conflict began on February 24, a US official said. According to the same source, the two ladies have exchanged letters in recent weeks.
“I wanted to come to Mother’s Day,” Ms. Biden told reporters who watched the meeting begin in a small classroom at a school converted into a refugee reception center.
“I thought it was important to show the people of Ukraine that this war has to stop, that this war is brutal, and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine,” she continued. .
Ms Zelenska replied in Ukrainian, her remarks being translated by an interpreter.
“First of all, I would like to thank you for a very courageous act,” she said.
“Because we understand what it takes for the First Lady of the United States to come here during a war where military operations take place every day, where air-raid sirens sound every day, even today added Olena Zelenska.
“We all feel your support and we all feel the leadership of the President of the United States, but we would like to emphasize that Mother’s Day is a very symbolic day for us, because we also feel your love and support on such an important day. “, she added.
A closed-door meeting of the two women lasted about an hour, before they met refugee children working on paper cutouts, accompanied by their mothers.
Ms. Biden then returned to the Slovakian border.