The First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden paid an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Sunday, her spokesman said, where she met her Ukrainian counterpart, Olena Zelenska, at a school used as a shelter for displaced civilians, including children.
At the same time, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited the fighting-ravaged city of Irpin, near kyiv, occupied by the Russians in March. And at the same time, the vocalist of the Irish group U2, Bono, gave a concert in the kyiv subway. A day of important visits before Russia celebrates Victory Day, a celebration of the defeat of the Nazis in 1945 at the hands of Soviet troops.
Meanwhile, sixty people were confirmed dead on Saturday in the bombing of a school in the Lugansk region of eastern Ukraine, all of them civilians, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said on Sunday. “Yesterday, without going any further, in the town of Bilogorivka, in the Lugansk region, a Russian bomb killed 60 civilians,” Zelensky said during a videoconference intervention at a G7 summit. “They were trying to take shelter in an ordinary school building that was targeted by a Russian aerial bombardment,” he added.
since daysthe Ukrainian authorities warn of the possible intensification of Russian attacks on the eve of the commemoration of May 9. The Ukrainian president wanted to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II with a message comparing the current situation. “Decades after World War II, darkness returned to Ukraine,” the president said in a video posted on social media.
“I wanted to come on Mother’s Day. I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop and that this war has been brutal and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine,” Biden told reporters.
important visits
Jill Biden was in Slovakia this week, among other things, to meet with Ukrainian refugee families. Her visit to Ukraine was kept secret until the last moment. Biden and Zelenska embraced and the US first lady presented the Ukrainian president’s wife with a bouquet of flowers. It is the first time Zelenska has appeared in public since the start of the conflict on February 24, according to a US official. According to the same source, both had exchanged letters in recent weeks.
“First of all, I would like to thank you for a very brave act,” Zelenska told Biden. “Because we understand what it means for the first lady of the United States to come here during a war where military operations are taking place every day, air raid sirens are going off every day, even today,” she added.
I wanted to come on Mother’s Day. I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop
The two women’s closed-door meeting lasted about an hour and they then met with refugee children working on paper cutouts, accompanied by their mothers.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was another unexpected visitor. He reached the fighting-ravaged city of Irpin, near kyiv, occupied by the Russians in March. “He came to Irpin to see with his own eyes all the horrors that the Russian occupiers did to our city,” Oleksander Markushin wrote on Telegram, accompanying his message with photos of Trudeau in the destroyed city.
Trudeau’s visit to Ukraine had not been announced. The prime minister arrived in Ukraine to meet with President Zelensky and reaffirm his unwavering support for the Ukrainian people, his office said.
Meanwhile, in the kyiv metro, Irish singer Bono, from the group U2, gave a concert at a metro station in the Ukrainian capital, during which he praised this country’s struggle for “freedom” and asked that he arrive soon. peace. From a kyiv metro station platform, the 61-year-old legendary musician and guitarist The Edge performed several of the band’s classics, including Sunday Bloody Sunday, Desire and With or Without You.
“The people of Ukraine are not only fighting for their own freedom, they are fighting for all of us who love freedom,” the singer said.
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