Jill Biden, Doctor of Diplomacy

A solo commute by a First Lady of America to a theater of war is in a league of its own.

First Lady Jill Biden at Koscice International Airport, Slovakia, May 8, 2022. AP/Susan Walsh, pool

Call her Jill Biden, Doctor of Diplomacy. She’d deserve the title and congratulations. That’s our reaction to news that our First Lady fetched up over the weekend in Ukraine. The appearance of Mrs. Biden in the war ravaged country is a show of American support for the Ukrainian cause, just a day before the Kremlin prepares to celebrate on Monday what the Russians seem to be intent on calling “Victory Day.”

The particulars of the First Lady’s visit were shrouded in secrecy. She was reportedly ferried by car from a Slovakian border town to Uzhhorod, in southwestern Ukraine. There she met with Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, who made her first appearance since the assault on her county began. Mrs. Biden conveyed that “the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine.”

We understand that Mrs. Biden isn’t the first high profile American figure to make a visit to Ukraine. The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, made an important visit, pledging American support for President Zelensky’s nation “until victory is won.” Secretaries Blinken and Austin have visited, as have leaders from Canada, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Not to mention Britain’s inimitable Boris Johnson.

Yet a solo commute by a First Lady of America to a theater of war is in a league of its own. Mmes. Biden and Zelenska visited with school children, a statement in and of itself. Mrs. Zelenska, who rarely appears in public, acknowledged “what it takes for the U.S. first lady to come here during a war, where the military actions are taking place every day, where the air raid sirens are happening every day — even today.”

Plus, too, it was Mother’s Day. This confluence says something not only about how America feels about Ukraine but also about the modern era. The United Nations estimates that 2.5 million children have been displaced within Ukraine. It’s a reminder that the world needs its mothers, which was so deftly underlined by the American First Lady, Doctor of Diplomacy.


The New York Sun

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