Jolie visits Lviv to cheer up children fleeing conflict
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has visited the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, popping into a bakery and going to the railway station to meet some of the people displaced by the war with Russia.
Jolie, 46, is a special envoy for the UN refugee agency, which says more than 12.7 million people have fled their homes in the past two months, representing about 30 per cent of Ukraine’s population before the war began.
During a visit to the station on Saturday, Jolie met volunteers working with the displaced.
They told her that each of the psychiatrists on duty spoke to about 15 people a day, many of them children aged between 2 and 10.
“They must be in shock … I know how trauma affects children. I know just having somebody show how much they matter, how much their voices matter, I know how healing that is for them,” she said.
At one point during her visit to the station, Jolie tickled a small girl dressed in red, who laughed.
Later the actress was seen in a cafe by Maya Pidhorodetska, who posted a video on Facebook.
“I am having a coffee and I see Angelina Jolie in Lviv,” she said.
Jolie’s visit to Lviv was made in a personal capacity and was not arranged by the UN.
Last month, in her role as special envoy, she visited Yemen, where millions of people have been displaced by war.