Joe Biden’s Kyiv visit was months in the making

After dinner with the first lady, the US President departed aboard Air Force One under a shroud of secrecy for a roughly 20-hour journey that was meticulously planned.

US President Joe Biden with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska, at Mariinsky Palace. Picture: AFP

President Biden spent Saturday evening at Red Hen, a favourite spot in Washington’s dining scene, with first lady Jill Biden. Hours later, he departed Andrews Air Force Base aboard Air Force One under a shroud of secrecy for a roughly 20-hour journey that eventually brought him to Ukraine’s capital city for a historic wartime visit.

Mr Biden’s trip was meticulously planned for months and aimed to send a strong message of American support for Kyiv days before the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, top US officials said on Monday. It was known to only a handful of people at the White House, the National Security Council, the Secret Service and the Pentagon, officials said. What White House officials described as a last-minute “huddle” on Friday sealed the planning details for the trip, which was seen by officials as high-risk but high-reward.

Unlike with previous presidential trips to warzones, such as Iraq or Afghanistan, the US military doesn’t control the infrastructure or security situation on the ground in Ukraine, officials pointed out. That raised the need for planning and additional security, they said. The top levels of the Ukraine government co-ordinated with the White House, officials said.

A convoy of vehicles move through Kyiv during Mr Biden’s visit. Picture: AFP

In the days leading up to the trip, the White House maintained Mr Biden had no plans to visit Ukraine as part of his scheduled travel to Poland this week to mark the February 24 anniversary of the conflict. The White House even issued a presidential schedule for Sunday that suggested Mr Biden was still in the US.

Only two journalists, rather than the typical pool of about a dozen who trail a president on such trips, were gathered at Andrews Air Force Base in the early hours of Sunday. One of them was with The Wall Street Journal. They were instructed to turn over their phones and were barred for security reasons to do any reporting on Mr Biden’s whereabouts in real time. The president was joined by just three members of his senior staff: national security adviser Jake Sullivan, deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon and personal aide Annie Tomasini.

Moscow was alerted to the trip in the hours before Mr Biden left, Mr Sullivan said, though he declined to provide details of the heads-up or of Moscow’s response.

The pair visiting the Walk of the Brave. Picture: AFP

Joe Biden says ‘Kyiv has captured a part of my heart’. Picture: AFP

Mr Biden first flew to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where the presidential aircraft remained with its shades down for the duration of its time on the ground. After dark, Air Force One flew to Poland’s AF1 Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport. From there, the entourage boarded trains destined for Kyiv. Much of the last leg, a 10-hour train ride, occurred in the dark so there was little visible beyond streetlights and the shadows of buildings in the distance.

In Kyiv, rumours of Mr Biden’s visit circulated in the early morning after whole districts of the city were closed to traffic, creating a larger perimeter than for visits when other leaders have visited.

By 8am local time Monday, Mr Biden had arrived. A motorcade of minivans and armoured vehicles was captured on video driving in the city. A video by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s team showed Mr Biden emerging from a white Toyota SUV, instead of the black presidential limousine, for his first stop — at Mariinsky Palace.

An expanded pool of reporters was assembled on the ground to join in the coverage, which saw Messrs Biden and Zelensky together walk the gilded halls of the palace. Mr Biden was in a blue suit with a striped tie bearing Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow colours, while Mr Zelensky wore olive green pants, beige boots and a black sweatshirt in what has become a signature look of the wartime leader since the conflict began.

The two leaders posed for photos inside the palace’s White Hall, a large chandelier suspended above them, and shook hands while flanked by the American and Ukrainian flags. Mr Zelensky escorted his counterpart to a small white desk, where Mr Biden signed a guest book in what marked his first visit to Ukraine since days before he departed the White House as vice president in January 2017.

“I thought it was critical that there not be any doubt, none whatsoever, about US support for Ukraine in the war,” Mr. Biden said of his surprise appearance in Kyiv.

Air raid sirens blared across the city as Messrs Biden and Zelensky walked outside St Michael’s Cathedral, a complex of sky-blue and golden buildings that in 2013 became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance against Russia’s ambitions across the region. Neither man reacted to the sirens, although they served as a reminder that the leaders were meeting in an active war zone and in a city that has been the target of Russian rockets.

Mr Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outside St Michael’s Cathedral. Picture: AFP

The president’s visit had remained secret until a video appeared on social media of him embracing Mr Zelensky outside St. Michael’s Cathedral. The president made one final stop inside the US Embassy before departing the capital, his method of transportation still unknown to the public. Mr Biden was on the ground in Kyiv for about five hours, and departed by the same 10-hour train ride back into Poland.

It was a strenuous journey for Mr Biden, 80, that demonstrated his personal affinity for Ukraine in what he said was his eighth visit to the country.

“Kyiv has captured a part of my heart, I must say,” Mr. Biden said in remarks earlier in the day in which he recalled how international leaders anticipated the capital would fall to Russia in the early days of the invasion. “One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you and the world stands with you.”

The Wall Street Journal