Angelina Jolie made a surprise visit to Ukraine, visiting the western city of Lviv on Saturday, according to regional governor Maksym Kozytsky.
During Jolie’s visit, the actor and activist stopped by a medical institution. “She has visited children who suffered from a missile strike by the Russian military on the Kramatorsk train station,” wrote Kozytsky on Telegram. “She was very moved by their stories. One girl was even able to tell Ms. Jolie about her dream privately.”
Kozytsky also said Jolie talked and took photos with students at a boarding school, adding that she “promised she would come again.”
In addition, Jolie met with evacuees arriving at the central railway station in Lviv as well as Ukrainian volunteers providing medical help and counseling to the new arrivals. “She thanked them for their work,” Kozytskyy said. “She talked to people who managed to leave the zones of active hostilities.”
According to Reuters, Jolie’s visit to the station was cut short by air raid sirens.
Although Jolie has been a UNHCR Special Envoy for Refugees since 2011, the visit was made on her own accord, as United Nations spokesperson Matt Saltmarsh clarified in a statement: “Angelina Jolie is traveling to Ukraine in her personal capacity and UNHCR has no involvement in this visit.”
Check out photos from Jolie’s visit below.
In early March, Jolie made an official visit to Yemen in her UN capacity to help draw attention to the impact of the seven-year civil war on displaced families and refugees within the country. She isn’t the only thespian to have been on the ground in Ukraine. Sean Penn famously was filming a documentary about the Russian invasion, but later fled the country on foot to Poland as a military convoy advanced on Kyiv.
Actress and filmmaker Angelina Jolie visits the central railway station in Lviv to welcome the internally displaced Ukrainians arriving on an evacuation train from Pokrovsk, a city in Donetsk Oblast, on April 30. Jolie is a special envoy of UNHCR.
Photo: Ukrainian Railways. pic.twitter.com/KNmnKyYur8
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 30, 2022
️ Actress and filmmaker Angelina Jolie was spotted at a cafe in western Ukrainian city of Lviv on April 30.
Jolie is a special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Video: Maya Pidhoretska via Facebook. pic.twitter.com/CBtR4HBMNR
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 30, 2022