President Biden made a 10-hour train journey from Poland to Kyiv. It was an audacious trip almost unheard of for an American president.
Appearing in a war zone under regular attack, White House officials describe Joe Biden’s unexpected visit to Ukraine’s capital Kyiv as “unprecedented in modern times”.
Despite widespread speculation among the press corps that Biden might be planning a trip to Ukraine while he was in Poland, the visit appeared completely surprising.
The sight of him appearing beside President Volodymyr Zelensky in the heart of Kyiv and under the sound of air raid sirens, makes a louder statement than anything he can say in a speech in Poland.
“It was risky and should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that Joe Biden is a leader who takes commitment seriously,” said White House communications director Kate Bedingfield.
Biden had been scheduled to fly out from the US to Warsaw on Monday evening, for a two-day trip.
The advance schedule had two suspiciously lengthy gaps in his itinerary, and many wondered if that might be when he would slip into Ukraine.
The final decision to make the trip to Kyiv was only taken on Friday, even though it had been planned for months with a handful of the presidents’ top aides.
On Sunday, the official White House schedule still showed the president taking off for Warsaw at 19:00 EST (00:00 GMT) on Monday evening. In fact, Air Force One took off at 04:15 EST on Sunday morning.
On board was a deliberately small team of his closest aides, a medical team and security officers.
Only two journalists were allowed to travel with the president. They were sworn to secrecy and had their mobile phones taken away from them. They were not allowed to report the visit until after Biden had arrived in Kyiv.
russia was notified of the trip a few hours before Biden’s departure, according to the US national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
He said the US “did so for deconfliction purposes… I won’t get into how they responded or what the precise nature of our message was, but I can confirm we provided that notice”.
Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, was asked last week about polls that show American support Ukraine softening. She answered that whenever the president speaks, he is talking to the American people as well as people around the world. Monday’s message is designed to vividly counter the minority of Republican voices who question for how long the US can continue supporting Ukraine.
President Biden then spent 10 hours on a train to get to Kyiv. He could have visited other locations inside Ukraine that would have been easier to get to, but he wanted to make the symbolic trip to Kyiv itself.
It appeared a great sign that American leader is on the way of struggle with russian aggression.
This trip is a signal to moscow of the Biden administration’s commitment to helping Ukraine.
© Times of Ukraine