Jill Biden visited the Ukraine in a surprise visit on Sunday where she met her Ukrainian counterpart Olena Zelensky and expressed American support for the embattled nation.

'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,' she said. 

Biden is the highest profile member of President Joe Biden's administration to visit the war torn country. She called the president from her car as her motorcade left the Ukraine to return to Slovena, an East Wing official said. 

The visit wasn't announced due to security reasons. The first lady traveled by vehicle to the town of Uzhhorod, about a 10-minute drive from a Slovakian village that borders Ukraine. She spent about two hours in Ukraine.

The first lady always planned to visit a school in the Ukraine as part of her trip, her spokesperson Michael LaRosa told reporters traveling with her but Ukrainian officials suggested Mrs. Zelensky would want to meet her. That part of the visit came together in the past 10 days.  

Biden gave Zelensky, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a bouquet of flowers. This is the first time Zelensky has appeared in public since Feb. 24, the date that Russia invaded. 

The two first ladies have exchanged correspondences in the last few weeks, the White House said. It began when the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. gave Biden a letter from Mrs. Zelensky at the State of the Union, when she was one of the first lady's guests. Zelensky sent Biden another letter in April expressing concerns about the toll of the war having on the mental health of children, soldiers and families.