Jill Biden paid an unexpected visit to western Ukraine on Mother’s Day, meeting with first lady Olena Zelenska to offer US support for the struggling country as Russia pursues its brutal assault in the east.

Biden entered Ukraine under cover of darkness, becoming the latest high-profile American to visit the country during its 10-week confrontation with Russia.

“I wanted to come on Mother’s Day,” the US 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.”

Biden spent nearly two hours in Ukraine, driving to the town of Uzhhorod, which is about a 10-minute drive from a Slovakian settlement she visited on the border.

“We understand what it takes for the US first lady to come here during a conflict when military engagements are taking place every day, and air sirens are occurring every day — including today,” Zelenska added, thanking Biden for her “courageous deed.”

Before meeting in private, the two first ladies sat across a table from one another in a tiny classroom, welcoming each other in front of the media. Zelenska and her children have been kept secure in an undisclosed location.

The school where they met has been converted into temporary accommodation for Ukrainian refugees from other parts of the nation.

The visit allowed Biden to perform the type of personal diplomacy that her husband wishes he could undertake.

President Joe Biden stated on his March visit to Poland that he was unhappy he could not visit Ukraine to examine circumstances “firsthand,” but that he was not permitted to do so, most likely for security reasons. Even as late as last week, the White House stated that while the president “would love to come,” there are currently no plans for him to do so.

Jill Biden’s travel follows visits to the war-torn country by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress, as well as a combined journey to Kyiv by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Her travel was restricted to western Ukraine; Russia’s military force is concentrated in eastern Ukraine, and she was not in danger. On the same day as Biden’s visit, a Russian bomb exploded in eastern Ukraine, killing scores of people who were hiding in the school’s basement.

Earlier, she toured the border settlement of Vysne Nemecke in Slovakia, reviewing activities put up by the United Nations and other aid agencies to assist Ukrainians seeking sanctuary. Biden attended a religious ceremony in a tent transformed into a chapel, where a priest said, “We pray for the people of Ukraine.”

Previously, in Kosice, Biden visited with and gave assistance to Ukrainian moms in Slovakia who had been displaced by Russia’s conflict. She reassured them that the “hearts of the American people” are on their side.

At a bus station in the city that is now a 24-hour refugee processing center, Biden found herself in an extended conversation with a Ukrainian woman who said she struggles to explain the war to her three children because she cannot understand it herself.

“I cannot explain because I don’t know myself and I’m a teacher,” Victorie Kutocha, who had her arms around her 7-year-old daughter, Yulie, told Biden.

In recent weeks border crossings are averaging less than 2,000 per day, down from over 10,000 per day immediately after Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, and a large portion of that flow is daily cross border traffic.

Biden is on a four-day visit to Eastern Europe to highlight US support for Ukrainian refugees and for the allied countries such as Romania and Slovakia that are providing a safe haven for them.

She spent Friday and Saturday in Romania, visiting with US troops and meeting with Ukrainian refugee mothers and children.

With her trip, the American first lady followed the path of prior sitting first ladies who also traveled to war or conflict zones.

Eleanor Roosevelt visited servicemen abroad during World War II to help boost troop morale. Pat Nixon joined President Richard Nixon on his 1969 trip to South Vietnam, becoming the first first lady to visit a combat zone, according to the National First Ladies’ Library. She flew 18 miles from Saigon in an open helicopter, accompanied by US Secret Service agents.

Hillary Clinton visited a combat zone, stopping in Bosnia in 1996. Four years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and during the US-led war in Afghanistan, Laura Bush went to Kabul in 2005 and Melania Trump accompanied President Donald Trump to Iraq in December 2018.

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