First lady Jill Biden made a surprise Mother's Day visit to Ukraine, White House confirms there are no plans for Joe to travel to Kyiv



First lady Jill Biden made a surprise visit to Ukraine this Sunday marking a rare solo as the spouse of a sitting president to visit an active war zone.

Fox News reported that the first lady entered Ukraine by crossing the border from Slovakia on Sunday morning after visiting with Ukrainian refugees at a processing center. Reportedly, she met with Ukrainian first lady Olen Zelenska. The Ukrainian first lady has not been seen in public since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Mrs. Biden said, “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 Ukraine.”

Zelenska praised her American counterpart for making a “courageous trip” which reportedly occurred as an impromptu stop on the U.S. first lady’s four-day trip to Eastern Europe without her husband.

The first ladies met in a small classroom in front of reporters before holding a private meeting. Zelenska and her children have reportedly remained in an undisclosed location due to safety concerns as Russian officials made it an early priority of their invasion to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and members of his family.

The two women later joined a group of children who live at the school where they met in making tissue-paper bears to give as Mother’s Day gifts.

The first lady’s visit to Ukraine marks the third high profile meeting between U.S. and Ukrainian officials.

In late April U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Zelenskyy to discuss the U.S. federal government’s role in providing the Ukrainian military with more than $300 million in financing. And in early May, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi along with the Democratic U.S. Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, Gregory Meeks of New York, and Adam Schiff of California met with Zelenskyy to show support for the Ukrainian government.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also visited Ukraine and held a private meeting with Zelenskyy in the country’s capital city of Kyiv.

President Joe Biden has yet to visit Ukraine or host Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy previously told CNN host Jake Tapper that he thought Biden ought t visit Ukraine because ‘’he is the leader of the United States, and that’s why he should come here to see.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki, however, confirmed that there are no plans to send Biden to Ukraine.

She said, “No. No, we are not sending the president to Ukraine.”

Joe Biden agreed to pay more than $800,000 of Hunter's debts including legal fees stemming from business with a Chinese firm



According to a recently surfaced email, President Joe Biden agreed to pay more than $800,000 of the legal bills built up by his son Hunter while he was conducting business with a Chinese firm.

The email contained an attached spreadsheet detailing debts owed by Hunter, which calls into question the validity of his father’s repeated claims about never discussing Hunter’s foreign business dealings with him.

The New York Post reported that the email was sent on January 17, 2019, by Hunter’s former personal assistant, Katie Dodge, and sent to an accountant named Linda Shapero, who founded the firm Global DEEZ in Leesburg, Virginia.

In the email, Dodge wrote, “I spoke with Hunter today regarding his bills. It is my understanding that Hunt’s dad will cover these bills in the short-term as Hunter transitions in his career.”

The email included the greeting “Hello VP team” and was cc’d to Hunter Biden and Richard Ruffner, who was a personal aide to Joe Biden during his tenure as vice president after he left office and while he ran for president.

The spreadsheet attached to the email shows Hunter Biden owing debts that include more than $130,00 in legal fees due “ASAP” to the law firm Faegre Baker Daniels, with $28,382 owed for “BHR Restructuring.”

BHR is believed to be a reference to the Chinese company Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management, a company in which Hunter Biden held a 10% stake through a holding company called Skaneateles LLC.

BHR is primarily owned by Chinese investors. This includes the Bank of China, which is a government-controlled entity operated by the Chinese Communist Party.

Hunter Biden reportedly owed Faegre Baker Daniels another $20,909 for “Burnham Restructure,” referring to the Burnham Financial Group. Hunter’s former business partner Devon Archer, along with others, invested in this initiative as a plan to create their own financial services conglomerate.

Hunter maintained an office at the New York headquarters of an asset-management firm that was supposed to merge with Burnham as part of a deal called a “roll-up.” Hunter evidently seldom used the office, and the firm never merged with Burnham.

Hunter also owed Faegre Baker Daniels $82,239 for “Confidential Investi” for a total of $131,530.

Other debts listed in the spreadsheet include payments and insurance for a Porsche, a Ford truck, a boat, the tuition for Hunter’s daughters at the University of Pennsylvania and a private day school, and $37,000 per month to his ex-wife Kathleen Buhle.

The spreadsheet also listed a separate section titled “CREDIT CARDS” that included an outstanding balance of $157,033.

More than half of the debts listed on the spreadsheet involved various state and federal taxes, totaling more than $400,000.