Angelina Jolie visits western Ukraine

Angelina Jolie has been seen on the street Lviv in western Ukraine on April 30, talking to fans in a cafe and meeting with people displaced by the ongoing conflict with Russia.

Angelina Jolie served as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for many years, but is said to have traveled to Ukraine on a personal basis.

ITV reported that Angelina Jolie was seen signing autographs in a cafe and meeting refugees at a train station. The actress’s spokesperson added that she also visited orphans and displaced children at a hospital.

Angelina Jolie and her entourage were also seen running at times when there was an air strike alert, although no missile attack was reported in Lviv on April 30. Located in the West Ukrainejust 70 km from the Polish border, Lviv has not suffered the fierce fighting as in eastern and southern Ukraine.

However, Russia has conducted a number of missile attacks in the region. Earlier this month, a military facility in the city was attacked, and a training center hosting foreign “mercenaries” about 30 kilometers away was attacked in March.

Although Angelina Jolie has worked with UNHCR for many years as an envoy, her spokesperson said that the trip to Ukraine was a personal one, focused on understanding the needs of children. During the height of the Syrian civil war in 2013, Jolie made a similar trip to meet with Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and in 2018 to groups of displaced people in Jordan and Iraq.

The Hollywood actress’s visit to Lviv comes a few days after United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres traveled to Kiev to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine at the end of February, after accusing Kiev of failing to fulfill the terms of the Minsk agreement, first signed in 2014 and eventually Moscow’s recognition of the the self-proclaimed Donbass republics Donetsk and Lugansk. The Minsk agreement brokered by Germany and France was designed to give the breakaway regions special status in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country and will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev asserts the attack of Russia is completely gratuitous and refute claims that there are plans to retake the two republics in Donbass by force.