Angelina Jolie makes surprise Ukraine visit, meets children

Angelina Jolie, Hollywood movie star and UNHCR goodwill ambassador, poses for photo with kids in Lviv, Ukraine. Photo / AP

Hollywood actress and UN humanitarian ambassador Angelina Jolie made a surprise visit to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday, the Lviv regional governor said on Telegram.

According to Maksym Kozytskyy, Jolie — who has been a UNHCR Special Envoy for Refugees since 2011 — had come to speak with displaced people who have found refuge in Lviv, including children undergoing treatment for injuries sustained in the missile strike on the Kramatorsk railway station in early April.

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 more.

Angelina Jolie, Hollywood movie star and UNHCR goodwill ambassador, with her fans in Lviv, Ukraine. Photo / AP

"She was very moved by (the children's) stories," Kozytskyy wrote. "One girl was even able to privately tell Jolie about a dream she'd had."

Angelina Jolie, Hollywood movie star and UNHCR goodwill ambassador, poses for photo with kids in Lviv, Ukraine. Photo / AP

He said Jolie also visited a boarding school, talk with students and took photos with them, adding "she promised she would come again."

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

According to Kozytskyy, Jolie also met with evacuees arriving at Lviv's central railway station, as well as with Ukrainian volunteers providing the new arrivals with medical help and counselling.

Angelina Jolie, with fans in Lviv, was in the Ukraine to meet the children affected by the war. Photo / AP

"The visit was a surprise to us all," he wrote. "Plenty of people who saw Jolie in the Lviv region could not believe that it was really her. But since February 24, Ukraine has shown the entire world that there are plenty of incredible things here."