BUCHAREST -- U.S. first lady Jill Biden met with Romanian leaders, praising them for the welcome and assistance provided to refugees fleeing the Russian invasion in neighboring Ukraine, calling the efforts "amazing."
Biden, the wife of President Joe Biden, also met on May 7 with Ukrainian refugees at a school in the capital, Bucharest, speaking with mothers and their children in a visit alongside Romanian first lady Carmen Iohannis.
Biden is on a four-day official trip to visit U.S. troops and meet with leaders in Romania and Slovakia to show support for U.S. allies amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine and to thank them for their assistance to war refugees.
Nearly 860,000 Ukrainians have fled to or passed through Romania, escaping the war, according to the UN's refugee agency. Some 7,000 Ukrainians cross the border and arrive in Romania daily, said Pablo Zapata, the Romanian representative for the UN agency.
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During a meeting with Carmen Iohannis, Biden said she wanted to "express her gratitude for Romania's generosity and support for Ukrainian refugees." President Klaus Iohannis was also at the meeting, according to photos posted on his Facebook account.
“The Romanian people are amazing, to welcome all these refugees into their homes and offer them food and clothing and shelter and give them their hearts,” she said. “I think the world knows that.”
Biden and the Romanian first lady traveled to the capital’s Uruguay School, which is hosting Ukrainian refugee students.
"Thank you for welcoming us into your hearts," Biden told the Ukrainian mothers who shared their dramatic experiences.
Anastasia Konovalova, a Ukrainian mother who helped organize schooling for refugee children, said hundreds of children have come to Romania from Ukraine and want to study while here but want to eventually return to their home country.
Biden, who is a teacher herself, praised the instructors at the Bucharest school, telling them: “Really, in a lot of ways, the teachers are the glue that help these kids deal with their trauma and deal with the emotion and help give them a sense of normalcy.”
Earlier, Biden traveled to the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base near Constanta, to meet with U.S. troops there.
Following her visit to Romania, Biden traveled to Slovakia, where she left flowers at a memorial dedicated to a 26-year-old investigative journalist, Jan Kuciak, and his fiancee. The two were assassinated in 2018 in a case that ignited a political crisis and helped bring down the country's government.
She is expected to spend May 8 meeting with refugees in Slovakia and visiting a village on the country's border with Ukraine.