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Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, visited the White House on Tuesday as part of her outstanding trip to Washington when the Russian war in her country enters its sixth month.
Zelenska arrived at the White House shortly after 1:30 p.m., and was greeted on the south lawn by President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. The president presented Zelenska with a bouquet of yellow sunflowers, blue hydrangeas and white orchids – reminiscent of the colors of the Ukrainian flag – and the first lady hugged Zelenska.
The group, which included Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova, posed for a photo at the south entrance of the White House, flanked by an American flag and a Ukrainian flag. They did not answer journalists’ questions about what they would discuss.
Zelenska and Jill Biden had a private meeting, then held an extended meeting with Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; Isobel Coleman, Deputy Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); Victoria Nuland, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs; general surgeon Vivek H. Murthy; and second knight Douglas Emhoff.
On this Mother’s Day, my heart is with you, First Lady Olena Zelenska, and with all the brave and resilient mothers of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/tCMXCXhgiY
– Jill Biden (@FLOTUS) May 8, 2022
Tuesday’s visit to the White House was not the first meeting of Zelenska and Jill Biden. In May, during Mother’s Day weekend, Jill Biden paid an unannounced visit to Ukraine and met with Zelenska in Uzhhorod, a city on the border with Slovakia, as well as with Ukrainian refugees.
At the start of her private meeting on Tuesday, Jill Biden recalled the “pain and sorrow” of the war zone and told Zelenska that her team had been working on ways to help with the mental health of women. Ukrainian mothers and children forced to flee their homes.
On Monday, Zelenska met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and USAID administrator Samantha Power to “address the long-term psychosocial impacts of the Russian war” in Ukraine, according to the White House.
Today he met with Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, to discuss the immense humanitarian costs of President Putin’s war. The United States remains committed to helping the people of Ukraine defend themselves against Russia, ensure justice, and rebuild their country. pic.twitter.com/r4XuTKHPP7
– Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) July 19, 2022
Earlier Tuesday, Zelenska visited the new Museum of Victims of Communism in Washington to accept a human rights award on behalf of the people of Ukraine. Speaking at the museum, Zelenska noted that there were three photographs of Ukrainian dissidents who had been tortured or sent to “question the cult of Stalin.” He compared them to some of the atrocities the Ukrainians had faced over the past five months as a result of the invasion of Russia.
“Through all this suffering and pain, we send a strong warning to war: remember that the darkest past can be easily overcome,” Zelenska said. “In certain places, the darkness has never faded. I just discovered how to use more advanced weapons and use social media. And so today we are not only fighting for our freedom, but fighting for Stalin’s great terror. it will never be repeated anywhere else in the civilized world ”.
The mention of Joseph Stalin was intentional. In the early 1930s, the Soviet dictator pursued policies that provoked a massive famine in Ukraine. An estimated 4 million people died during this period, known as the Holodomor, or starvation.
Cut off from food, Ukrainians remember the famine under Stalin
On Wednesday morning, Zelenska plans to address Congress to give an update on security, economic and humanitarian conditions on the ground in Ukraine. The statements will come less than two months after Congress approved in May a $ 40 billion aid package for Ukraine, which included $ 20 billion in military aid, nearly $ 8 billion in economic aid, nearly $ 5,000. millions of dollars in global food aid and more than $ 1 billion in total. support for refugees.
In a letter to fellow Democrats on Tuesday about Zelenska’s upcoming visit, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (California) highlighted the cost of women and girls to the war in Ukraine, a topic she said he was especially concerned about women in Congress.
“In the course of visits by Ukrainian leaders, from members of parliament to grassroots heroes, many of us have heard horrific stories about the brutal treatment of women and girls by Russian forces,” Pelosi wrote. “In fact, we have enough evidence of kidnappings and deportations in Russia, rapes of women in front of family members and even rapes of girls.… Let me be clear: raping children cannot be a weapon of war. “It’s a war crime!”
At the start of the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that his family was a main target for Russian troops. In a rare joint interview with him in May, Zelenska said she and her two children did not see Zelensky for two and a half months after the start of the war, as they took refuge in an undisclosed location in part of it.
“Our family was destroyed, like all other Ukrainian families,” Zelenska said at the time.
Jeff Stein, Mike DeBonis and Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.