President Joe Biden paid an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Monday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a gesture of solidarity that comes days before the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the country.
Speaking alongside Zelenskyy at the Mariinsky Palace, Biden recalled fears from nearly a year ago that invading Russian forces could quickly take the Ukrainian capital. “A year later, kyiv is on its feet,” Biden said, pinching his finger to emphasize his podium decorated with American and Ukrainian flags. “And Ukraine is standing. Democracy stands. Americans are with you, and the world is with you.
The visit to Ukraine comes at a crucial time in the war as Biden seeks to keep his allies united in their support for Ukraine as the war is expected to escalate, with both sides preparing for the spring offensives. Zelenskyy is urging allies to speed up the delivery of promised weapons systems and calling on the West to deliver fighter jets to Ukraine – something Biden has so far refused to do.
In Kyiv, Biden announced half a billion more dollars in US aid, including howitzer shells, anti-tank missiles, air surveillance radars and other aid, but no new advanced weapons.
Zelenskyy said he and Biden talked “about long-range weapons and weapons that could still be supplied to Ukraine even if they weren’t supplied before.” But he did not detail any new commitments.
Biden also got a brief glimpse of the terror Ukrainians have lived with for nearly a year, as air raid sirens wailed over the capital as he and Zelensky emerged from the gold-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral, which they visited together. Looking solemn, they continued unfazed as they laid a wreath and observed a moment of silence at the Memorial Wall in honor of Ukrainian soldiers killed since 2014.
Biden’s mission with his visit to Kyiv, which precedes a planned trip to Warsaw, Poland, is to stress that the United States is ready to stay with Ukraine “as long as it takes” to repel forces Russians, even if the opinion polls suggest so. that support from the United States and its allies to provide arms and direct economic assistance began to wane. For Zelenskyy, the symbolism of having the US president by his side on Ukrainian soil as the anniversary approaches is no small feat, as it pushes US and European allies to provide more advanced weapons and accelerate the pace of deliveries.
“I thought it was essential that there be no doubt, no doubt, about American support for Ukraine during the war,” Biden said.
Biden’s visit marked an act of defiance against Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had hoped his army would quickly overrun Kyiv within days. Biden recalled speaking with Zelenskyy the night of the invasion, saying, “That dark night a year ago, the world was literally preparing for the fall of Kiev. Maybe even the end of Ukraine. .
A year later, the Ukrainian capital remains firmly under Ukrainian control and a semblance of normality has returned to the city as fighting has concentrated in the east of the country, punctuated by cruise missile and drone attacks on military and civilian infrastructure.
Biden has warned that the “brutal and unjust war” is far from won. “The cost that Ukraine had to bear was extraordinarily high. And the sacrifices have been far too great,” Biden said. “We know there will be very difficult days, weeks and years ahead. But Russia’s goal was to wipe Ukraine off the map. Putin’s war of conquest is failing.
“He’s counting on us not to stick together,” Biden said of the Russian leader. “He thought he could outlive us. I don’t think he thinks that right now. God knows what he thinks, but I don’t think he thinks that. But he is simply wrong. Totally wrong.
The trip gave Biden the opportunity to get a first-hand look at the devastation the Russian invasion has caused in Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have been killed, millions of refugees have fled the war, and Ukraine has suffered tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure damage.
Biden pledges long-term support for Ukraine, saying “freedom is priceless. It’s worth fighting for as long as it takes.
“And that’s the time we’re going to stick with you, Mr. President, for as long as it takes,” Biden promised. Zelenskyy, speaking in English, replied: “We will.”
Air raid warnings sounded across Ukraine on Tuesday as Russian forces continued their barrage of strikes across the country.
Although Western surface-to-air missile systems have strengthened Ukraine’s defenses, the visit marked the rare occasion that a US president has visited a conflict zone where the United States or its allies had no not airspace control. It was not immediately clear whether the United States had announced the trip to Moscow in advance to avoid miscalculations that could bring the two nuclear-armed nations into direct conflict.
The US military has no presence in Ukraine other than a small detachment of Marines guarding the embassy in Kyiv, making Biden’s visit more complicated than other recent visits by former US leaders to areas of war.
While Biden was in Ukraine, American surveillance planes, including an E-3 Sentry airborne radar and an RC-135W Rivet Joint electronic plane, monitored kyiv from Polish airspace.
Speculation has been mounting for weeks that Biden would visit Ukraine around February 24, the anniversary of the Russian invasion. But the White House has repeatedly said no presidential trip to Ukraine is planned, even after the visit to Poland was announced earlier this month.
Since Monday morning, many main streets and central blocks in Kyiv have been cordoned off without any official explanation. Later, people started sharing videos of long motorcades moving through streets where access was restricted.
At the White House, planning for Biden’s visit to Kyiv was tightly organized — with a relatively small group of aides briefed on the plans — due to security concerns. The president traveled with a generally small entourage, with only a few senior aides and two reporters, to maintain secrecy.
Asked by a reporter on Friday whether Biden could include stops beyond Poland, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby replied, “For now, the trip will be in Warsaw. ” Moments later – and unprompted – Kirby added: “I said ‘now’. The trip will be to — to Warsaw. I didn’t mean to sound like I was hinting at a change.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been named Person of the Year 2022 by Time.
Biden quietly left Joint Base Andrews near Washington shortly at 4:15 a.m. Sunday, stopping at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany before heading to Ukraine. He arrived in kyiv at 8 a.m. on Monday.
Other Western leaders have made the trip to kyiv since the start of the war.
In June, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and then Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi traveled together by overnight train to kyiv to meet Zelenskyy. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Kyiv in November shortly after taking office.
This is Biden’s first visit to a war zone as president. His recent predecessors, Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, made surprise visits to Afghanistan and Iraq during their presidencies to meet with US troops and those countries’ leaders.
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Madhani and Miller reported from Washington.
NBC Chicago
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