MIHAIL COGALNICEANU AIR Base, Romania (AP) – Delivering good mood – and gallons of ketchup – Jill Biden thanked US troops stationed in Romania on Friday for testing Russia’s aggression when it opened a trip to Europe for two countries. to learn about the refugee crisis caused by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The first lady of the United States took off overnight from Washington and landed just in time to help serve dinner at Romania’s Mihail Cogalnicanu Air Force Base near the Black Sea and about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the Ukrainian border. The base is temporarily home to about 1,600 of the several thousand troops sent by President Joe Biden to Eastern Europe at the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
In the food line, Jill Biden fed pasta, cheese and baked potatoes – and encouraged the weary soldiers to have some vegetables – before she greeted groups of them as they ate at round tables in the dining room. They were amused when she revealed that she came with ketchup, which was scarce at the base.
“I know it’s difficult for your families,” she told a serviceman, referring to her own experience when her son Bo Biden was sent to Iraq.
Elsewhere in the base, the first lady joined the Sgt headquarters. Sharon Rodgers to read the children’s book “Night Catch” on videotape for Rodgers’ son, Nathan, who lives in Texas. Biden also thanked the boy for serving his country.
“When your mother serves, so does your family, so thank you for your service,” she told Nathan. She and Rodgers hugged, and Biden wished her a happy Mother’s Day.
Before leaving the base and flying to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, the first lady posed with soldiers representing her home country through her service in the National Guard of the Delaware Army. She handed them a souvenir coin, which she designed when she first distributed copies of the coin.
For weeks, the first lady was impressed by the news coming from Ukraine, the bombings and the scenes of “parents crying over the broken bodies of their children on the streets,” she said in a recent speech. She is now using her second solo trip abroad to survive the crisis for herself by visiting Romania and Slovakia.
“It’s so important for the president and for me that the Ukrainian people know we’re with him,” Biden told reporters Thursday night before leaving Washington.
NATO allies Romania and Slovakia border Ukraine and have taken in some of the millions, mostly women and children, who fled after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, sparking Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
Biden also used the trip to highlight issues he promoted at home, including support for U.S. servicemen, education, and child welfare.
At the center of the trip comes Sunday, Mother’s Day, when the mother of three meets displaced Ukrainians who have sought refuge across the Slovak border.
Her daughter Ashley Biden had planned to accompany her, but gave up on Thursday after learning she was in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, said Michael LaRosa, a spokeswoman for the first lady. Ashley Biden’s test was negative, he said.
The first lady will also meet during the trip with aid workers, professors, government officials and US embassy officials, the White House said.
Nearly 6 million Ukrainians, mostly women and children, have fled their country since Russia’s invasion, according to the UN refugee agency. Hundreds of thousands have settled in neighboring countries, such as Romania and Slovakia, or gone elsewhere in Europe to rebuild their lives.
Biden has long been interested in the plight of refugees around the world.
In 2011, when her husband was vice president, she traveled to drought-stricken East Africa to visit Somali hungry refugees at Dadaab camp in Kenya. In 2017, she visited refugees in Chios, Greece, as part of the work of the humanitarian organization Save The Children, on whose board she worked.
Some refugee advocates said Biden’s trip would send a message that the United States is taking its humanitarian commitment to the Ukrainian people seriously.
“Every first lady has a comprehensive awareness-raising platform, and this trip will be an important tool for mobilizing additional support for those forced to leave their homeland,” said Krish O’Mara Vignaraja, president and CEO of the Lutheran Service. for Immigration and Refugees and former political director of First Lady Michelle Obama.
Biden’s trip was followed by other US government officials visiting Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, to meet with President Vladimir Zelensky, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Defense Minister Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
President Biden visited Ukrainian refugees in March during a bus stop in Poland, closest to Ukraine during the war. The White House says he has no plans to visit Kyiv.
Jill Biden continued his trip to Bucharest on Saturday with briefings on humanitarian efforts, a meeting with Romania’s first lady Carmen Johannes and a tour of a school where Ukrainian refugee students are enrolled. The first lady is a professor of English at the municipal college.
On Sunday in Slovakia, Biden will visit the city-run refugee center and public school in Kosice, which also hosts Ukrainian refugee students, to take part in Mother’s Day events with Ukrainian and Slovak mothers and children. She will also visit the border crossing between Slovakia and Ukraine in Vysne Nemeke, Slovakia.
The White House declined to comment on whether she would cross the border and enter Ukraine.
On Monday, she met with Slovak President Zuzana Chaputova, the country’s first female president, before Biden returned to Washington.
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