Angelina Jolie visits Ukrainian refugees in Italian children’s hospital

Actor and UN special envoy was visiting Bambino Gesú hospital in Rome

Angelina Jolie has visited with Ukrainian child refugees in Italy.

The Oscar winning actor, who is also a special envoy for the UN, visited a pediatric hospital just outside of Vatican City that is caring for children who have fled the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

During her visit to Rome’s Bambino Gesú, Jolie sat and spoke to many young patients, some of whom have cancer. She also met with doctors and nurses who provide care at the hospital

It is estimated by Unicef that 2 million child refugees have left Ukraine since the onset of war on 24 February. They also estimate that around 2.5 million children are displaced within Ukraine, with 60 per cent of children forced to leave their homes.

Jolie has a long history of supporting refugees and in 2012 was named Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The actor was also made an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George for her work campaigning to end sexual and gender based violence in war zones.

She has previously visited conflict zones such as Yemen and Burkina Faso to support refugees.

Jolie most recently starred in superhero film Eternals and crime thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead alongside Nicholas Hoult and Jon Bernthal.

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.