Comment Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska visited the White House on Tuesday as part of her trip to Washington as 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 Ukraine’s 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 respond to reporters’ questions about what they would discuss. Zelenska and Jill Biden had a one-on-one meeting and then had an extended meeting with Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations. Isobel Coleman, the deputy director of the US Agency for International Development (USAID); Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state for political affairs; Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy; and second Mr. Douglas Emhoff. This Mother’s Day, my heart goes out to you, First Lady Olena Zelenska, and 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 for Zelenska and Jill Biden. In May, over Mother’s Day weekend, Jill Biden made an unannounced visit to Ukraine and met with Zelenska in Uzhhorod, a town on the border with Slovakia, as well as Ukrainian refugees. At the start of their one-on-one meeting on Tuesday, Jill Biden recalled the “sorrow and pain” of the war zone and told Zelenska that her team was working on ways to help the mental health of Ukrainian mothers and children forced to leave their homes. On Monday, Zelenska met with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and USAID Administrator Samantha Power to “address the long-term psychosocial impact of Russia’s war” in Ukraine, according to the White House. He met with Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska today to discuss the enormous humanitarian cost of President Putin’s war. The United States remains committed to helping the people of Ukraine defend themselves from Russia, secure justice, and rebuild their country. pic.twitter.com/r4XuTKHPP7 — Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) July 19, 2022 Earlier on Tuesday, Zelenska visited the new Museum of Victims of Communism in Washington to receive 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 removed for “challenging the cult of Stalin”. He compared them to some of the atrocities Ukrainians had faced in the past five months as a result of Russia’s invasion. “Through all this suffering and pain, we send a strong warning to the war: Remember that the darkest past can be easily defeated,” Zelenska said. “In some places, the darkness has never been extinguished. He just figured out how to handle more advanced weapons and use social media. And so we are not only fighting for our freedom today, we are fighting so that the great terror of Stalin will not be repeated anywhere, ever, in the civilized world.” The Joseph Stalin reference was intentional. In the early 1930s, the Soviet dictator implemented policies that led to mass starvation 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 is scheduled to address Congress to provide an update on the security, economic and humanitarian conditions on the ground in Ukraine. The statements come less than two months after Congress approved a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine in May, which included $20 billion in military aid, nearly $8 billion in economic aid, nearly $5 billion in global food aid and a total of more of $1 billion supporting refugees. In a letter to Democratic colleagues Tuesday about Zelenska’s upcoming visit, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) highlighted the toll the war in Ukraine has taken on women and girls, an issue she said is of particular concern to women in Congress. “During visits by Ukrainian leaders — from members of parliament to grassroots heroes — many of us have heard horrific stories of the brutal treatment of women and girls by Russian forces,” Pelosi wrote. “Indeed, we have sufficient evidence of kidnappings and deportations in Russia, rape of women in front of family members and even rape of little girls. … Let me be clear: child rape 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 the top target for Russian troops. In a rare joint interview in May, Zelenska said she and her two children did not see Zelensky for 2½ months after the war began, as they had taken refuge in an unknown location apart from him. “Our family fell apart, like every other Ukrainian family,” Zelenska said at the time. Jeff Stein, Mike DeBonis and Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.
