U.S. first lady asks Putin to end 'this senseless and brutal war'

U.S. First Lady Jill Biden has asked Russian President Putin to end his "senseless war" against Ukraine.

According to Ukrinform, she wrote this in a column on CNN's website.

"Mr. Putin, please end this senseless and brutal war," Biden said.

She shared her impressions of communicating with Ukrainian refugees in Slovakia and Romania and displaced persons in Uzhhorod, and spoke about her meeting with Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska.

"You cannot go into a war zone and not come away unchanged. You don't have to see the sorrow with your eyes because you can feel it with your heart. The thing about grief is that it veils one's face," Biden said, describing the Ukrainian mothers she met. She noted that the mothers who escaped the fighting lack laughter, a common language among women.

According to Biden, the Ukrainian mothers at the Romanian and Slovak schools she visited told her about "the horrors of the bombs that fell night after night as they sought to find refuge during their journey westward."

"Many had to live days without food and sunlight, harbored in basements underground," she added, recounting several specific cases.

Biden also said that Zelenska came out of hiding, leaving her own children, to visit her and "ask for help for the people of her country."

"She didn't ask me for food or clothing or weapons. She asked me to help her get mental health care for all those suffering from the effects of Vladimir Putin's senseless and brutal war," Biden said.

Zelenska also told Biden "of the rapes of women and children, and the many children who had seen people shot and killed, their homes burned."