KYIV, Ukraine – President Biden made a dramatic unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday, in a display of robust American support for Ukraine just four days before the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The high-risk visit to the historic Ukrainian capital – where air raid sirens blared as Biden walked the streets with President Volodymyr Zelensky – signals continued commitment from the United States, the largest financial and military backer of Ukraine’s effort to repel Russian invaders from its territory.
Biden was spotted with the Ukrainian leader outside St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery shortly before noon local time, his appearance capping hours of speculation during an intense security lockdown that had blocked car traffic and even pedestrians from certain streets.
Following talks with Zelensky and a visit to the U.S. Embassy, Biden departed Kyiv several hours later, according to a reporter traveling with him. Though brief, Biden’s visit represented one of the more remarkably presidential trips in modern history, sending him into a country at war and a city under regular bombardment without the heavy U.S. military presence that provided a protective shield during visits to Iraq or Afghanistan.
In his remarks alongside Zelensky, Biden said the U.S. would provide another half-billion dollars of assistance to Ukraine.
Biden has insisted the United States will continue to back Ukraine against Russia for “as long as it takes” despite flagging support among the American public and no near-term prospect of peace talks to end the conflict.
Though brief, Biden’s visit undoubtedly represented one of the more remarkable presidential trips in modern history – sending him into a country actively at war but without the heavy U.S. military presence that existed, for example, in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Biden has insisted the United States will continue to back Ukraine against Russia for “as long as it takes” despite flagging support among the American public and no near-term prospect of peace talks to end the conflict.
His administration has provided some $30 billion in security aid since President Vladimir Putin sent Russian forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, initiating the largest ground war in Europe since World War II – one that has cost his country and Ukraine hundreds of thousands of casualties.
Under Biden’s leadership, the United States and its NATO allies have gradually expanded the array of weaponry they have pledged to include heavy tanks, but Ukrainian leaders continue to press for after deliveries and more sophisticated weapons as the combatants prepare for renewed offensives this spring.
Biden said his visit was intended to reaffirm American backing for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, which Russia has violated since 2014, when Putin annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and launched support for a separatist campaign in the eastern Donbas region.
Photos showed the two men embracing in front a wall where photos of slain soldiers were displayed.
The White House has attempted to cast the deepening conflict as a high-stakes battle that will determine not only Ukraine’s fate but that of democracies and the rule of law everywhere, arguing that if Putin is permitted to seize parts of another nation by force it will give a green light to other dictators.
“When Putin launched his invasion nearly one year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he could outlast us,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House. “But he was dead wrong.”
Video later showed the president, wearing a dark suit and striped tie, seated with Zelensky, who wore his trademark military-style attire.
The visit represented a major boost for Zelensky, whose domestic support has soared, in line with national unity and anti-Russian fury, since Putin’s invasion.
As a wartime leader, Zelensky now faces the formidable task of propelling Ukraine’s fatigued military into Russian-occupied territory while also persuading foreign partners to provide ever-greater military support, including fighter jets. U.S. officials have so far declined to provide aircraft to Ukraine.
Biden’s trip to Ukraine comes as questions abound about the longevity of global backing for Ukraine and the cohesion of the U.S.-led coalition that has enabled Kyiv’s military success so far, and as China is reported to be actively considering sending military aid to Russia.
While Western nations continue to proclaim strong support, many have grown worried about the economic and political costs of a protracted conflict, and about their ability to keep the money and munitions flowing.
Opinion polls show that Americans are growing weary of the aid effort, mirroring complaints across the globe about billions going to Ukraine instead of other priorities. In past weeks, the White House has told Kyiv that it could soon see limits in support from the United States and other countries.
The series of massive U.S. aid packages approved to date for Ukraine materialized under a Democratic-controlled Congress. Republicans retook the U.S. House in November, and a vocal right-wing minority in the GOP has threatened to curtail support.
Biden’s trip was shrouded in secrecy and, on the ground in Kyiv, involved even greater security than other high-level visits. Biden had been due to leave for an announced visit to Poland from Washington on Monday evening but, according to a small group of reporters who traveled with Biden to Kyiv, actually departed Washington around 4 a.m. Sunday.
Journalists accompanying Biden reported that they had agreed to withhold real-time details of the president’s movements until he departed, including information about how he arrived in the Ukrainian capital. The country’s airspace has been closed for the last year.
While other world leaders have visited Kyiv to meet with Zelensky and tour the war-scarred city over the past year, Biden has stayed away due to security concerns and fears about the possibility of conflict between the world’s two largest nuclear powers, sending senior aides including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Minister Lloyd Austin his place. First lady Jill Biden made her own surprise visit to Western Ukraine on Mother’s Day in May.
In contrast, Boris Johnson visited Kyiv three times as prime minister in the months following the February invasion.
A reporter traveling with Biden reported around 2 p.m. local time that Biden had left Kyiv. No further details about his travel were immediately available.
During the visit Biden and Zelensky held private talks at the Mariinsky Palace, a ceremonial Baroque structure overlooking the Dnieper River in central Kyiv.
Zelensky said the discussion “brings us closer to victory,” according to a White House pool report.
He noted that his first call as the Russian invasion began on the night of Feb. 24, 2022 was to the United States.
“You told me that you could hear explosions in the background,” Biden said in response. “I’ll never forget that.”
Biden said he had asked Zelensky that night how he could be of help and twice repeated what he said was the Ukrainian leader’s response: “Gather the leaders of the world. Ask them to support Ukraine.”
“You said that you didn’t know when we’d be able to speak again. That dark night one year ago, the world was literally at the time bracing for the fall of Kyiv,” Biden continued. “Perhaps even the end of Ukraine.”
“One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,” he declared. “The Americans stand with you and the world stands with you.”
Biden also made a stop at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, which was closed for several months after Russia’s invasion. He was accompanied by aides including national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
It was not immediately clear whether Biden would still make his previously announced to Poland, where he had been scheduled to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda and leaders of the Bucharest Nine, a group of mostly former Eastern bloc nations once under Soviet influence formed after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and are increasingly wary of their larger neighbor’s expansionist aspirations.
(c) The Washington Post
Surprise visit to “Ukraine” in the CGI room…
I hope he stays there forever.
Who? It’s because of people like you and posters below yours that the reshaim had the power to fool the people with the fake virus and deadly jabs.
Stiff man Joe is a natural born leader.
Of these two horrific evil filthy Toeiva pedophiles illegitimate country leaders, I do not know which one is worse!
As our Torah instructs us: “Assur L’Histachel Bifnei Adam Rasha” – “It is forbidden to look at the face of an evil person,” Matzav, could you please not show us pictures of these two big Reshaim? Thanks
As many politicians and news analysts point out, wicked King Joe can go to see & support his hyper-corrupt buddies in Ukraine but he cannot go see the steadfastly upright good decent hard-working people in Eastern Ohio, whom have been cruelly smashed with a horrific calamity, that, in certain ways, is even worse than what has occurred to Ukraine.
Ukraine is absolutely NOT and kind of a “democracy” or a “free” country in any way or form at all by even the most remote stretch of imagination. The severely evil dictator stud, Zelensky, tightly rules over it with an iron fist. He himself is a horrid Toeiva guy, who brazenly flaunts his Toeiva in public and forces Toeiva acceptance on the whole country. He has outlawed all political parties except his own and has outlawed all media news outlets except his own. A major component of his security & military forces is the gigantic group of contemporary Nazis in the country. These severely evil thugs, Yimach Shemam V’Zichram, are either direct continuations of the Nazi soldiers & officers who came there in World War II or are other wicked people who decided to become “spiritual heirs” to those World War II ones. The famous swastika flag & other swastika icons are brazenly displayed among them as they brazenly shout Nazi chants & salutes.
Furthermore, Ukraine has become the hub & epicenter of heavy rings of the very worst corruptions of numerous western government leaders & other elites & officials. With the endless amounts of VERY big $$$$$$$$ flowing through the money laundering and countless other criminal channels, it has become a GIGANTIC “cash cow” for all these severely wicked elites, which they absolutely cannot afford to loose.
Therefore, all this massive support for Ukraine in this war has nothing whatsoever to do with its promoted propaganda of “defending freedom” or “fighting for freedom.” The only “freedom” that is being upheld is Zelensky’s “freedom” to continue to make his big-in-public Toeiva parades, Rachmana Litzlan!! The only “freedom” that is being upheld is the corrupt elite’s “freedom” to continue to rake in the big-under-the-table-money. The only “freedom” that is being upheld is the severely evil handler’s “freedom” to continue to traffic millions of kidnapped “disappeared” children into the most horrific sinister exploitations, Rachmana Litzlan!!
Hunter Biden had nothing to do with Ukraine and Burisma.
Massive wate of US money. This Is part of a vast political theater with a few evil.people like Bill Gates pulling the strings. They leave USA to go to the dogs and pretend to care about Ukraine. Massive corruption beyond imagination.
Biden personally went there to collect his share. He needed the C-32 Cargo Jet to bring back the pallets of cash, gold and Bitcoins that were secretly loaded while he bribed Zelensky with another 30 billion US Taxpayer dollars in security aid. Zelensky will steal much of that for himself and some of his cronies. Complete corruption right under our noses. And the idiots just keep voting for sick, corrupt DemocRATs. Over and over and over again. Morons.