MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU AIR BASE, Romania — Delivering good cheer — and 5 gallons of ketchup — Jill Biden thanked U.S. troops deployed to Romania as a check against Russian aggression for their service, as she began a four-day trip to Europe to see first hand the refugee crisis caused by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Later, in a small room at the same base, Biden was videotaped reading the children’s book “Night Catch” aloud with Staff Sgt. Sharon Rogers, originally from Kenya, in a virtual story time session for Rogers’ son, Nathan. “It’s so important to the president and to me that the Ukrainian people know that we stand with them,” Jill Biden told reporters traveling with her Thursday night, She said earlier in the week she wants the refugees to know “their resilience inspires me.”
Biden’s daughter, Ashley Biden, had planned to accompany her mother to Europe, but backed out after learning Thursday that she was a close contact of someone who tested positive for COVID-19, said Michael LaRosa, the first lady’s spokesperson. Ashley Biden tested negative, LaRosa said. More than 850,000 Ukrainians have entered Romania since the invasion, while nearly 400,000 have crossed into Slovakia, according to government figures from those countries.In 2011, when her husband was vice president, she traveled to drought-stricken east Africa to visit with Somali famine refugees at the Dadaab camp in Kenya. In 2017, she visited refugees in Chios, Greece, as part of work by the aid organization Save The Children, on whose board she served.
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