In surprise visit to Ukraine, Jill Biden spends Mother’s Day with families in war-ravaged nation

US first lady Jill Biden on Sunday made an unannounced visit to western war-ravaged Ukraine and held a surprise Mother’s Day meeting with the nation’s first lady, Olena Zelenskyy. (Photo: Reuters)

U.S. first lady Jill Biden hugs Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, outside a public school in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, May 8, 2022. (Susan Walsh/Pool via (Reuters Photo)

Biden travelled under the cloak of secrecy, becoming the latest high-profile American to enter Ukraine during its 10-week conflict with Russia. (Reuters Photo)

US first lady Jill Biden meets Slovak and Ukrainian mothers and their children as the families participate in a Mother's Day activity, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kosice, Slovakia, May 8. (Reuters Photo)

First lady Jill Biden gets a hug from Ukrainian refugee Yulie Kutocha, 7, as her mother Victorie Kutocha, watches, during a visit to a city-run refugee center in Kosice, Slovakia, Sunday, May 8, 2022. The center is a place for Ukrainian refugees to rest and prepare for onward travel. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool)

US first lady Jill Biden and Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, join a group of children, who live at School 6, in making tissue-paper bears to give as Mother’s Day gifts, in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, May 8, 2022. (Reuters Photo)

First lady Jill Biden reaches out to hug Olena Zelenska, spouse of Ukrainian's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at the end of their visit to School 6, a public school that has taken in displaced students in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, Sunday. (AP Photo)

Zelenska thanked Biden for her “courageous act” and said, “We understand what it takes for the US first lady to come here during a war when military actions are taking place every day, where the air sirens are happening every day — even today.” The school where they met has been turned into transitional housing for Ukrainian migrants from elsewhere in the country. (Reuters Photo)

The two came together in a small classroom, sitting across a table from one another and talking before reporters before they met in private. (Reuters Photo)

First lady Jill Biden sits with Slovakia's Prime Minister Eduard Hege as Capt. Frantisek Krusinsky, Priest from the Ordinariate of Slovak Armed Forces, leads a prayer in Vysne Nemecke, Slovakia, near the border with Ukraine, Sunday, May 8, 2022. (AP Photo)