Administration

Jill Biden meets with Slovakian President Čaputová

First lady Jill Biden, left, and President of Slovakia Zuzana Caputova pose for a photo before their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Bratislava

First lady Jill Biden met with Slovakian President Zuzana Čaputová on Monday during the last stop on her trip to Eastern Europe to highlight Russia’s invasion into Ukraine.

During their meeting at the presidential palace, Biden and Čaputová discussed support for the Ukrainian people and how the U.S. and Slovakia are joining forces to help.

Biden on Sunday made an unannounced visit to western Ukraine and met with first lady Olena Zelenska to show U.S. support for the embattled nation.

Earlier Sunday, she met with Ukrainian refugees at Ukraine’s border with Slovakia.

“I said just how much I saw the need to support the people of Ukraine and … the horrors and the brutality that the people I had met had experienced,” she told reporters when asked what she told President Biden after her visit to the border.

At the Vysne Nemecke border crossing, Jill Biden visited a tent providing food and supplies for refugees and stopped by a chapel with volunteers and first responders. Ukrainian refugees have been able to receive basic services at the crossing before traveling to processing centers or transit hubs located further into Slovakia.

On Saturday, she met with Ukrainian women and children who fled their country at a school in Bucharest, Romania, and after the visit said she felt a sense of hope.

When she arrived at the palace for her meeting with Čaputová on Monday, the first lady wrote a note into a large guest book.

“During my time in this beautiful country, I have seen firsthand the shared values that united Slovakia and the United States as friends, partners, and Allies. This includes our common devotion to helping those most in need. We stand with Slovakia as it stands with the people of Ukraine,” she wrote, according to reporters traveling with the first lady.

The first lady left the palace on Monday for the airport to return home to the U.S. Her four-day trip to Eastern Europe comes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is progressing through its third month.