Jill Biden to travel to Ukraine border, spend Mother's Day meeting refugees

WASHINGTON — First lady Jill Biden’s weekend trip to Eastern Europe will include a Mother’s Day trip to Slovakia’s border with Ukraine, the White House announced Thursday.

Sunday’s stop at a border crossing in Vyšné Nemecké, Slovakia, will be the latest by a prominent U.S. government official to the front lines of the Russia-Ukraine war. There, Biden will survey a checkpoint where Ukrainian refugees receive basic assistance from humanitarian and Slovakian government workers before they travel further west to processing centers and transit hubs, according to the White House.

At the stop, which will also include a visit to a small Greek Catholic chapel, Biden is expected to convey the gratitude of her husband’s administration for the work being done there and learn about the experiences of aid workers and refugees, the White House said.

Also Sunday, Biden will visit a refugee center and school in the larger city of Košice, about 55 miles from the border, where she’ll participate in Mother’s Day activities with both Slovaks and Ukrainian refugees.

The four-day trip to Romania and Slovakia is Biden’s second, solo international trip, following a 2021 trip to Tokyo representing the Biden administration at the Summer Olympic games.

The planned visit in proximity to an active war zone comes after a pair of trips into Ukraine by high-level U.S. officials that were revealed only after their arrival — first, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on April 24, and then just last weekend a congressional delegation led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The announced stops will showcase both Biden’s professional role as an educator, and an area of focus during her time as both second and first lady, supporting veterans and military families.

She lands Friday at Mihail Kogalniceanu Airbase near the Black Sea in Romania, where she will visit with — and serve dinner to — U.S. service members part of rotational deployments in support of the NATO ally.

On Saturday, Biden will be briefed on U.S.-led humanitarian efforts in Romania at the U.S. embassy in Bucharest, and also meet with Romanian first lady Carmen Iohannis, who, like Biden, has continued to work as an English teacher since becoming a presidential spouse. She’ll also visit a public school in the capital city that has been hosting Ukrainian refugee students.

Biden's trip ends Monday in Bratislava where she meets with Slovakian President Zuzana Čaputová, the first woman to hold the office there.