LVIV, Ukraine — Hollywood actress and U.N. humanitarian Angelina Jolie has made a surprise visit to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. The area's regional governor said Jolie — who has been a UNHCR Special Envoy for Refugees since 2011 — had come to speak Saturday with displaced Ukrainians who had found refuge in Lviv.
Those included children undergoing treatment for injuries sustained in the Russian missile strike on the Kramatorsk railway station. The attack in the eastern Ukrainian city appeared to deliberately target a crowd of mostly women and children trying to flee a looming Russian offensive, killing at least 52 and wounding dozens. Jolie also visited a school, talking with students and taking selfies with them.
Maksym Kozytskyy, the Lviv regional governor, said “She was very moved by (the children’s) stories." He said, “One girl was even able to privately tell Ms. Jolie about a dream she’d had.”
“The visit was a surprise to us all,” he wrote. “Plenty of people who saw Ms. Jolie in the Lviv region could not believe that it was really her. But since Feb. 24, Ukraine has shown the entire world that there are plenty of incredible things here.”
