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Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday as she began a series of high-level meetings in Washington, including one with First Lady Jill Biden.
Blue and yellow Ukrainian flags flew alongside American flags in the capital as Ms Zelenska headed to her first meeting in the United States, with Secretary Blinken.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the secretary of state assured Ms Zelenska of the US commitment to Ukraine. Secretary Blinken also commented on her work with civilians dealing with trauma and other war injuries.
The State Department first announced and later canceled a joint outing for photojournalists. Keeping a low profile suggests Ms Zelenska is not traveling as an official representative of the government of her husband, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ms Zelenska studied architecture at university but worked as a comedy scriptwriter, including for Mr Zelenskyy, who starred in a popular TV series before winning the presidency in 2019.
During the war, President Zelenskyy won the admiration of Ukrainians and Ukrainian supporters abroad through his stay in the capital, Kiev, after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his attack on Ukraine in February.
Along with the two children, Ms Zelenska did not appear in public in the first months after the attack began. In an interview with Time magazine this month, she said the war forced her to take refuge from President Zelenskyy for security reasons in the early hours of the bombing by Russian forces. Their children, like other Ukrainians, have seen their father during speeches to the country broadcast overnight.
Ms Zelenska emerged from seclusion on May 8 to greet US First Lady Jill Biden, who was making an unannounced visit to western Ukraine.
The two first ladies then met at a school, where they hugged, chatted and joined schoolchildren preparing Mother’s Day gifts.
Since that meeting, Ms. Zelenska has taken on a higher public profile. This includes giving more newspaper interviews about Ukraine’s struggles and its projects during the conflict. She has supported the provision of therapy for millions of Ukrainians now dealing with grief and trauma.
She will meet with First Lady Jill Biden on Tuesday and speak to lawmakers in the Capitol’s congressional auditorium on Wednesday. Her husband received applause from members of Congress during a videotaped speech to lawmakers in the same auditorium earlier in the war.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately respond to questions Monday about the timing of her visit./VOA
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