President joined first lady in welcoming Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska to the White House on Tuesday, two months after the two women met in the Ukraine.

The president carried a bouquet of yellow, sunflowers, blue hydrangeas, and white orchids that he gave to Zelenska.Blue and yellow are the national colors of the Ukraine.

Jill Biden gave her Ukrainian counterpart a hug. Zelenska is on a tour of Washington D.C., to bring attention to Ukrainian humantarian issues and was not accompanied by her husband, Ukrainian President Volodymyr .She met with Secretary of State Tony on Monday and will address members of Congress on Wednesday.

Zelenska was escorted by Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova.The four posed for a photo before going inside.  Biden put his arm around Zelenska to bayan escort her inside the White House.

Zelenksa is making a private visit to Washington D.C. to highlight the human cost of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. 

When the two first ladies met, Jill Biden referenced their Mother’s Day meeting when she made a surprise visit to the Ukraine during a trip to Eastern Europe.

‘One of the things that I said when I came back was you cannot go into a war zone and come back and not feel the sorrow and pain,’ she said.

During their meeting, the two first ladies ‘will discuss the United States’ continued support for the government of Ukraine and its people as they defend their democracy and cope with the significant human impacts of Russia’s war, which will be felt for years to come,’ the East Wing said in a statement on the meeting.

Jill Biden hosted an extended bilat session featuring Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, U.S.Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Isobel Coleman, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Toria Nuland, and U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. 

The topic was mental health.  

‘You introduced me to so many refugees, the mothers and the children, and we spent some time with them.

So, I know you’re here with us, again, to talk about mental health issues. And so I came back and I talked to my team – I think you received my letter about what we’re doing to help with mental health for the mothers and the children who have really suffered such tragedy and atrocities.

So I’ve been working on it. The team has been working on it,’ Jill Biden said in her opening remarks

Biden became the highest profile member of President ‘s administration to visit the Ukraine when she made her secret visit there in May, where she sat down with her Ukrainian counterpart. 

‘I wanted to come on Mother’s Day.I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop and this war has been brutal and that the people of the United States stand with the people of ,’ she said.

Jill Biden was in Slovakia when she made the detour across the border into the Ukraine. 

The visit wasn’t announced due to security reasons. The first lady traveled by vehicle to the town of Uzhhorod, about a 10-minute drive from a Slovakian village that borders Ukraine.She spent about two hours in Ukraine.

After her visit, she called President Biden from the car ride back to tell him ‘how much I saw the need to support the people of Ukraine.’

She also said she told him about the ‘horrors and the brutality that the people I had met had experienced.’ 

In May, the first ladies visited a public school in Uzhhorod that is being used as temporary housing and shelter for 163 displaced Ukrainians, including 47 children.

They joined kids who were working on art projects for their mothers.The children were crafting cardboard and tissue paper bears, which represent the symbol of the Zakarpattia Oblast.

Both women worked on crafting their own bears, using white and yellow tissue paper.

Olena Zelenska’s visit to the United States comes as the Russian invasion enters its sixth month.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said Blinken assured Zelenska of the United States’ commitment to Ukraine when he met with her on Monday.Blinken also commended her for her work with civilians dealing with trauma and other damage from the war.

Zelenska also met Monday with Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Power’s agency has given billions of dollars to support Ukraine’s government and to humanitarian needs, and is working to ease a global food shortage aggravated by Russia’s war.

Russian missiles struck cities and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine on Tuesday as Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled Tehran to meet Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi.

At least two civilians were killed and 15 wounded by Russian shelling across the country over the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s presidential office said.

In Odesa, an attack injured at least four people, burned houses to the ground and set other homes on fire, Oleksii Matsulevych, a spokesman for the regional administration, said.

 Kyiv hopes the war is at a turning point, with Moscow having exhausted its offensive capabilities in seizing a few small cities in the east, while Ukraine now fields long-range Western weapons that can strike behind Russian lines.