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Biden in Ukraine
ahead of war anniversary: ‘Kyiv stands’
By EVAN VUCCI, JOHN LEICESTER, AAMER MADHANI and ZEKE MILLER
9 minutes ago
President Joe Biden, center, poses with Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy, right, and Olena Zelenska, left, spouse of President Zelenskyy, at
Mariinsky Palace during an unannounced visit in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 20,
2023. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)
KYIV,
Ukraine (AP) — President Joe Biden made an
unannounced visit to Ukraine on Monday to meet with President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy, a striking gesture of solidarity that comes days before the one-year
anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the country.
Speaking alongside Zelenskyy at Mariinsky Palace, Biden recalled the
fears nearly a year ago that Russia’s invasion forces might quickly take the
Ukrainian capital. “One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden said, jamming his
finger for emphasis on his podium decorated with the U.S. and Ukrainian flags. “And
Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you, and the world
stands with you.”
The Ukraine visit comes at a crucial moment in the war as Biden looks
to keep allies unified in their support for Ukraine as the war is expected to
intensify with both sides preparing for spring offensives. Zelenskyy is
pressing allies to speed up delivery of pledged weapon systems and is calling on the West to deliver fighter jets to Ukraine — something that Biden to
date has declined to do.
In Kyiv, Biden announced an additional half-billion dollars in U.S.
assistance — on top of the more than $50 billion already provided — including
shells for howitzers, anti-tank missiles, air surveillance radars and other aid
but no new advanced weaponry.
Ukraine has also been pushing for battlefield systems that would allow
its forces to strike Russian targets that have been moved back from frontline
areas, out of the range of HIMARS missiles that have already been delivered.
Zelenskyy said he and Biden spoke about “long-range weapons and the weapons
that may still be supplied to Ukraine even though it wasn’t supplied before.”
But he did not detail any new commitments.
“Our negotiations were very fruitful,” Zelenskyy added.
Biden also got a short firsthand taste of the terror that Ukrainians
have lived with for close to a year, as air raids sirens howled over the
capital just as he and Zelenskyy were exiting the gold-domed St. Michael’s
Cathedral, which they visited together. Looking solemn, they continued unperturbed
as they laid two wreaths and held a moment of silence at the Wall of
Remembrance honoring Ukrainian soldiers killed since 2014, the year Russia
annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and Russian-backed fighting erupted in
eastern Ukraine.
Biden’s mission with his visit to Kyiv, which comes ahead of a
scheduled trip to Warsaw, Poland, is to underscore that the United States is
prepared to stick with Ukraine “as long as it takes” to repel Russian forces
even as public opinion polling suggests that U.S. and allied support for
providing weaponry and direct economic assistance has started to soften. For
Zelenskyy, the symbolism of having the U.S. president stand side by side with
him on Ukrainian land as the anniversary nears is no small thing as he prods the U.S.
and European allies to provide more advanced weaponry and to step up the pace
of delivery.
“I thought it was critical that there not be any doubt, none
whatsoever, about U.S. support for Ukraine in the war,” Biden said.
Biden’s visit marked an act of defiance against Russian President
Vladimir Putin, who had hoped his military would swiftly overrun Kyiv within
days. Biden recalled speaking with Zelenskyy on the night of the invasion,
saying, “That dark night one year ago, the world was literally at the time
bracing for the fall of Kyiv. Perhaps even the end of Ukraine.”
A year later, the Ukrainian capital remains firmly in Ukrainian
control. Although a semblance of normalcy has returned to the city, regular air
raid sirens and frequent missile and killer-drone attacks against military and
civilian infrastructure across the country are a near-constant reminder that
the war is still fiercely raging. The bloodiest fighting is, for the moment,
concentrated in the country’s east, particularly around the city of Bakhmut, where Russian offensives are underway.
Biden warned that the “brutal and unjust war” is far from won. “The
cost that Ukraine has had to bear has been extraordinarily high. And the
sacrifices have been far too great,” Biden said. “We know that there’ll be very
difficult days and weeks and years ahead. But Russia’s aim was to wipe Ukraine
off the map. Putin’s war of conquest is failing.”
“He’s counting on us not sticking together,” Biden said of the Russian
leader. ”He thought he could outlast us. I don’t think he’s thinking that right
now. God knows what he’s thinking, but I don’t think he’s thinking that. But he’s just been plain wrong. Plain wrong.”
The trip gave Biden an opportunity to get a firsthand look at the
devastation the Russian invasion has caused on Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainian
troops and civilians have been killed, millions of refugees have fled the war,
and Ukraine has suffered tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure damage.
Biden pledged long-term support for Ukraine, saying that “freedom is
priceless. It’s worth fighting for for as long as it takes.”
“And that’s how long we’re going to be with you, Mr. President, for as
long as it takes,” Biden promised. Zelenskyy, speaking in English, responded:
“We’ll do it.”
The Ukrainian leader, wearing a black sweatshirt, as has become his
wartime habit, said through an interpreter that the “wide discussion” in their
meeting “brings us closer to the victory” — hopefully, he added, this year.
“Right now, in Ukraine, the destiny of the international order ... is
decided,” Zelenskyy said. He added words of gratitude to Biden and to the
American people for their support. “Ukraine is grateful to you, Mr. President,
to all the U.S. citizens, to all those who cherish freedom just as we cherish
them.”
Though Western surface-to-air missile systems have bolstered Ukraine’s
defensives, the visit marked the rare occasion when a U.S. president has
traveled to a conflict zone where the U.S. or its allies did not have control
over the airspace. The White House would not go into specifics but said that
“basic communication with the Russians occurred to ensure deconfliction”
shortly before Biden’s visit in an effort to avoid any miscalculation that
could bring the two nuclear-armed nations into direct conflict.
The U.S. military does not have a 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 prior U.S. leaders to war zones.
While Biden was in Ukraine, U.S. surveillance planes, including E-3
Sentry airborne radar and an electronic RC-135W Rivet Joint aircraft, were
keeping watch over Kyiv from Polish airspace.
Speculation has been building for weeks that Biden would pay a visit to
Ukraine around the Feb. 24 anniversary of the Russian invasion. But the White
House repeatedly had said that no presidential trip to Ukraine was planned,
even after the Poland visit was announced earlier this month.
Since early morning on Monday many main streets and central blocks in
Kyiv were cordoned without any official explanation. Later people started
sharing videos of long motorcades of cars driving along the streets where the
access was restricted.
At the White House, planning for Biden’s visit to Kyiv was tightly held
— with a relatively small group of aides briefed on the plans — because of
security concerns. The president traveled with an usually small entourage, with
just a few senior aides and two journalists, to maintain secrecy.
Asked by a reporter on Friday if Biden might include stops beyond
Poland, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby replied,
“Right now, the trip is going to be in Warsaw.” Moments later — and without
prompting — Kirby added, “I said ‘right now.’ The trip will be in -- to Warsaw.
I didn’t want to make it sound like I was alluding to a change to it.”
Biden quietly departed from Joint Base Andrews near Washington shortly
at 4:15 a.m. on Sunday, making a stop at Ramstein Air Base in Germany before
making his way into 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 night
train to Kyiv to meet with 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 U.S.
troops and those countries’ leaders.
___
Madhani and Miller reported from Washington.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
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