US says no plans for Biden to go to Ukraine after FLOTUS' surprise visit on Mother's Day

Despite US first lady Jill Biden's recent trip to Ukraine, White House press secretary Jen Psaki indicated on May 9 that President Joe Biden had no plans to visit the war-torn country. The Press secretary told reporters that the US President would "love" to go to Ukraine but has no present plans to do so when asked if the first lady's trip will "change the calculations" for Biden.

It is worth mentioning here that on Mother's Day, Jill Biden paid a surprise visit to Ukraine, where she met with Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska. Notably, Zelenska was making her first public appearance since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February. The First Ladies of US and Ukraine had spent nearly two hours together at a school in western Ukraine's Uzhhorod.

"Their travel is a little bit different. I think you all know from traveling with the president. But there’s not a trip currently planned. But, again, he would love to go to Ukraine. I just don’t have anything planned or anything to preview at this point," Psaki remarked at a press briefing.

The US first lady's safety is also a concern. When she travels alone, however, she takes a smaller jet than the US President's Air Force One and is accompanied by a much smaller "package" of Secret Service officers, Air Force crew members, White House personnel, and, on occasion, journalists. Because of the difference in "footprint," it is simpler for a first lady to act as an emissary for the president and then report back to him on what she learns during her travels.

Jill Biden's trip to Ukraine

Jill Biden had planned to visit Ukraine in March, but instead chose a Mother's Day weekend trip to encourage Ukrainian mothers who had fled with their children to "frontline" nations such as Slovakia, which has been accepting them. The first lady of the United States was able to operate as a second set of eyes and ears for President Joe Biden, who has been unable to visit the country personally. Jill Biden completed her four-day journey to Eastern Europe on May 9, meeting with Zuzana Caputova, Slovakia's first female president, in Bratislava. Her travel across the border on May 8 to meet with Zelenska and other Ukrainian refugees was a highlight of the trip.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been outspoken about wanting Biden to visit him in Kyiv since Russia declared war on Ukraine, as have many other foreign leaders, including Canada's Justin Trudeau on May 8. President Biden's most recent visit to Ukraine occurred in late March, when he stopped in Rzeszow, Poland, on his way to Brussels to meet with other international leaders to address the conflict. He publicly lamented not being permitted to cross the Polish border into western Ukraine at the time.

(Image: AP)