Jill Biden

Jill Biden spent several hours in Ukraine, driving from the border with Slovakia to a town 10 minutes away to see first lady Olena Zelenska on Mother's Day.

Slovakian and Ukrainian moms were brought together at the school for a Mother’s Day event while their children made crafts to give them as gifts. Earlier, in the Slovakian border village of Vysne Nemecke, Biden toured its border processing facility, surveying operations set up by the United Nations and relief organizations to assist Ukrainians seeking refuge. Laura Bush visited Afghanistan twice, in 2005 and 2008, during the U.S.-led war there. Her visit was to western Ukraine; Russia is concentrating its military power in eastern Ukraine, and she was not in harm’s way. The White House said as recently as last week that the president “would love to visit” but there were no plans for him to do so at this time. Eleanor Roosevelt visited servicemen abroad during World War II to help boost troop morale. The first ladies also had recently exchanged correspondence, according to U.S. officials who declined to provide further details because they were not authorized to discuss those private communications. Also 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. Hillary Clinton visited a combat zone, stopping in Bosnia in 1996. The first ladies met at a school being used to temporarily house Ukrainian migrants. Zelenska and her two children have been staying at an undisclosed location for their safety. Zalenska arrived first and waited in her black SUV until Biden arrived in similar fashion.

Jill Biden met Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, at a school converted to assist refugees who had come from other parts of the country to Uzhhorod, ...

The man took a Ukrainian flag pin from his lapel and handed it to her. (At one point, Zelenska asked the first lady how she was able to travel if she worked full time as a teacher. She wrote to Biden in April, expressing her concerns for the emotional well-being of the citizens of Ukraine, LaRosa said. Zelenska quietly slipped out of a vehicle to greet her. In Kyiv, a team of senior American diplomats returned to the U.S. Embassy for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine, a move that coincided with Victory in Europe Day. They reached out several days before Biden’s planned four-day tour of Eastern Europe to suggest a meeting with Zelenska in Ukraine, according to Michael LaRosa, the first lady’s spokesman. Biden, an English professor who teaches full time, has so far spent much of her time as first lady traveling the United States, urging Americans to take vaccines and support community colleges, or touting Joe Biden’s plans for social spending. Biden told her that she had just finished grading final exams and that the semester was over.) She stood among bottles of baby formula and well-worn toys and asked whether volunteers had what they needed. Her visit also came as Western officials were bracing for the possibility that President Vladimir Putin of Russia might use his country’s Victory Day holiday, which falls Monday, as a reason to intensify attacks on Ukrainian citizens. It’s impossible,” she said. His wife and children, Oleksandra, 17, and Kyrylo, 9, he said, are “target No. 2.” Since then, her whereabouts has been kept private.

Prague, May 9 (EFE).- United States first lady Jill Biden on Monday met with Slovakia's president Zuzana Caputova in Bratislava, where she expressed her ...

On Sunday, Biden traveled to Uzhhorod in Ukraine for an unannounced meeting with her Ukrainian counterpart Olena Zelenska in a show of solidarity coinciding with Mother’s Day. Prior to the meeting held at the Grassalkovich presidential palace, Biden stressed the importance of showing sympathy to the Ukrainian people amid the atrocities unfolding in their country. Prague, May 9 (EFE).- United States first lady Jill Biden on Monday met with Slovakia’s president Zuzana Caputova in Bratislava, where she expressed her gratitude for the country’s support for Ukraine amid the Russian invasion.

After a busy weekend in Eastern Europe -- which included a surprise visit to war-scarred Ukraine -- U.S. first lady Jill Biden departed Slovakia on Monday ...

Earlier on Sunday, Biden met with students and teachers at the Tomasikova Street School in Slovakia for Mother's Day and met with U.S. consular staff. "As a mother myself, I can only imagine the grief families are feeling," the first lady said last week about the trip. "This includes our common devotion to helping those most in need. Biden said that she would leave Caputova with a message of U.S. support for the people of Slovakia and Ukraine and "how we stand together in helping the Ukrainian people." Caputova, the first woman to serve as Slovakia's president, said her meeting with the first lady confirmed the friendship and "excellent relations" between Slovakia and the United States -- and "the ever-stronger transatlantic bond" between the countries. "During my time in this beautiful country, I have seen firsthand the shared values that united Slovakia and the United States as friend, partners, and allies," Biden said after her arrival to the Great Hall in Bratislava, according to the White House.

Dr. Jill Biden made an unannounced trip to Ukraine where she met Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska.

Dr. Biden began her trip in Romania, meeting troops stationed there, then traveled to Bucharest to see a school hosting Ukrainian children. There she heard emotional stories from Ukrainains, including a mother struggling to explain the violence to her three children, per the NYT. “How can I explain this to (a) child? Zelenska, who hasn’t appeared in public since the war began in February, thanked Dr. Biden for her “very courageous act” in coming to an active war zone. Her trip came on the same day that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Kyiv and U2 singer Bono performed in a makeshift bomb shelter. Dr. Biden wore a Mother’s Day corsage she received from her husband and presented Zelenska with a bouquet.

Dr. Jill Biden also met with U.S. service men and women as well as refugees and humanitarian workers in neighboring countries.

Nobody is going to break us, we're strong, we're Ukrainians," he told the European Union in a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, "Life will win over death. The Russian attack on Ukraine is an evolving story, with information changing quickly. With NATO forces massing in the region around Ukraine, various countries have also pledged aid or military support to the resistance. "First of all, I would like to thank you for a very courageous act," Zelenska said. Putin, 69, insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Details of the fighting change by the day, but thousands of civilians have already been reported dead or wounded, including children.

First lady Jill Biden met with Slovakian President Zuzana Čaputová on Monday during the last stop on her trip to Eastern Europe to highlight Russia's ...

We stand with Slovakia as it stands with the people of Ukraine,” she wrote, according to reporters traveling with the first lady. We invite you to join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter. Ukrainian refugees have been able to receive basic services at the crossing before traveling to processing centers or transit hubs located further into Slovakia.

Dr. Jill Biden net with the first lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska.

Biden joins a growing number of top U.S. officials who have made secret visits to Ukraine in recent weeks. "Because we understand what it takes for the U.S. first lady to come here during a war when the military actions are taking place every day, where the air sirens are happening every day, even today," she said. The first lady was greeted by Zelenska, who has not been seen in public since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, according to a U.S. official. The former first lady also visited Afghanistan in 2005. Biden, who embarked on her trip to Eastern Europe on Thursday, crossed the border from Slovakia into southwestern Ukraine on Sunday afternoon for the unannounced visit to a public school in Uzhhorod that was converted into a temporary shelter, housing 163 Ukrainians, including 47 children. "I wanted to come on Mother's Day," Biden told reporters traveling with her.

UZHHOROD, Ukraine -- Jill Biden made an unannounced visit to western Ukraine on Sunday, holding a surprise Mother's Day meeting with first lady Olena ...

Slovakian and Ukrainian moms were brought together at the school for a Mother's Day event while their children made crafts to give them as gifts. Her visit was to western Ukraine; Russia is concentrating its military power in eastern Ukraine, and she was not in harm's way. The White House said as recently as last week that the president "would love to visit" but there were no plans for him to do so at this time. Earlier, in the Slovakian border village of Vysne Nemecke, Biden toured its border processing facility, surveying operations set up by the United Nations and relief organizations to assist Ukrainians seeking refuge. The first ladies also had recently exchanged correspondence, according to U.S. officials. Zelenska and her two children have been staying at an undisclosed location for their safety. She went from table to table meeting the mothers and kids, telling some of the women that she wanted to come and "say the hearts of the American people are with the mothers of Ukraine." The first ladies met at a school being used to temporarily house Ukrainian migrants. And before that, at a school in Kosice, Biden offered support to Ukrainian mothers in Slovakia. She assured them that the "hearts of the American people" are behind them. Zelenska arrived first and waited in her black SUV until Biden arrived in similar fashion. LaRosa described their conversation as "more of a personal mother-to-mother exchange" and said Biden was interested in how Zelenska was coping "through that lens." "I wanted to come on Mother's Day," the U.S. first lady told Zelenska. "I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop and this war has been brutal and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine."

First lady Jill Biden made an unannounced stop in Ukraine on Sunday during a tour of Eastern Europe. She met with Ukraine's first lady, who made her first ...

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Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. First lady Jill Biden, left, gives bottles of ketchup to Major Shawn Bradberry, U.S. Army Deputy Host ...

She had the belly of her plane packed with seven trunks of supplies for refugees, including blankets, playing cards, coloring books and crayons, T-shirts, gardenia-scented candles, toiletry kits and other items. She brought them 50 gallons of ketchup after learning that base supplies of the condiment had run low. At the time, he publicly lamented that he was not allowed to cross the Polish border and go into western Ukraine. Security is a concern for the first lady, too. Jill Biden wrapped up her four-day trip to Eastern Europe on Monday after meeting in Bratislava with Zuzana Caputova, Slovakia's first female president. The first lady was so eager to tell the president about her meeting with Zelenska that he was the first person she called from her vehicle after that portion of the trip had concluded.