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Uzhhorod, Ukraine – First Lady Jill Biden crossed the border into Ukraine on Sunday, entering an active military zone in a rare move for the incumbent’s wife.
Biden entered the country on Mother’s Day from Slovakia after she visited a processing center at the Visne Nemeke border crossing and met with refugees. In Ukraine, she met with Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, who has not appeared in public since the February 24 Russian invasion.
“I wanted to come to Mother’s Day,” Biden said before the closed-door meeting between the two first ladies. “I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war must stop and that this war was brutal and that the people of the United States are with the people of Ukraine.
Zelenska praised Biden “for a very brave act” when he came to Ukraine.
“We understand what it takes for the first lady of the United States to come here during a war, when hostilities take place every day, where air sirens happen every day, even today,” she said in Ukrainian through an interpreter.
Biden’s unannounced visit came amid a four-day swing in Eastern Europe for the first lady, her top-level diplomatic commitment since President Biden took office. She entered Ukraine the day before Russia’s Victory Day, which some officials say will lead to a new, more violent phase of the war.
Previous first ladies have made overseas visits to support US troops stationed abroad, but few have visited an active military zone alone. In 2005, Laura Bush traveled alone to Kabul, where she met with women training to become a teacher and gave presents to Afghan children on the street. Bush returned to Afghanistan in 2008.
Jill Biden’s trip to this region comes at an important time in US foreign policy, as the United States plays a leading role in military conflict and the global humanitarian response. The invasion marks the peak of tensions between the United States and Russia since the end of the Cold War.
Biden and Zelenska have exchanged correspondence over the past few weeks, a US official said.
At a school here in Uzhgorod, the two women entered a classroom and sat at a table with children working on art projects for their mothers. The children made teddy bears from cardboard and tissue, which are the symbol of the Transcarpathian region.
Biden’s trip to Ukraine has been followed by two visits by senior US leaders in recent weeks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) is leading a congressional delegation in Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky late last month, following a trip by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Minister Lloyd Austin.
President Biden has not traveled to Ukraine since the start of the war, with aides privately citing the security challenges the visit will create. In March, he visited Rzeszow, Poland, about 60 miles from the Ukrainian border.
Biden and other leaders of the Group of Seven were scheduled to have a video interview with Zelensky later Sunday. A White House spokesman said leaders plan to discuss Russia’s ongoing invasion and how the G-7 countries can continue to support Ukraine and impose spending on Moscow.
Before crossing the border, Jill Biden visited a bus station in Košice, Slovakia, where local officials and NGOs have set up a refugee treatment center. Biden heard emotional stories from refugees fleeing Ukraine but expressed a strong desire to return to their homeland.
Victoria Kutocha, a mother of three whose husband stayed in Ukraine to fight in the army, told Biden about her trip to Slovakia and her outrage at Russia’s explanation for its invasion.
“They’re coming to our land,” she told Biden. “They’re killing us, but they say we’re protecting you.”
Embracing her 7-year-old daughter Yuli, Kutocha described the difficulty of explaining to her children why they had to leave home. “It’s impossible,” she said. “I am just trying to protect them. That’s my mission. “
“It’s pointless,” Biden said.
Biden began his trip to Romania, where he met with troops at Mihail Cogalnicanu Air Base and visited a school in Bucharest that hosted Ukrainian children. Biden will return to Bratislava, Slovakia, on Sunday night, and she is scheduled to meet with Slovak President Zuzana Chaputova on Monday.
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