The President of the US, Joe Biden on Monday made a trip to Kyiv organised in strict secrecy, pledging $500 million in fresh arms deliveries and ‘unwavering’ American support ahead of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Air raid sirens rang out across Kyiv at one point as Biden walked alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during what was the US president’s first visit to the country since Russian troops invaded on February 24, 2022.
‘One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,’ Biden said, speaking beside Zelensky at the Ukrainian president’s official residence, the Mariinsky Palace.
Russian President Vladimir ‘Putin thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he could outlast us.’
‘He’s just been plain wrong,’ Biden said, adding that “Putin’s war of conquest is failing”.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that the visit was organised in conditions of extraordinary secrecy.
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Biden left Washington in the early hours of Sunday in a plane that had been parked discreetly beside a hanger in the dark with shades drawn, and he landed in Poland on Sunday evening.
He was driven up to the train platform and quickly boarded the 10-hour overnight service to Kyiv, arriving at 8:00 am local time.
One pool reporter and one photographer travelled with him, with their phones taken away by agents, and they could only release full details after Biden had completed the return train journey to Poland.
They said most of the train was occupied by security personnel, and that there were a handful of brief stops in the night as they entered Ukraine.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Washington notified Russia about the trip “some hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes”.
He said it was “unprecedented” in modern times for a US president to visit the capital of a country at war in which the US military “does not control the critical infrastructure”.
It was the first trip to Ukraine by a US president since 2008.
Kyiv residents said they were delighted.
“This means that the Americans are clearly and irrevocably on our side,” said 50-year-old Oksana Shylo.
“It’s a good sign for the Ukrainian people, for Ukraine’s victory,” said businessman Vladyslav Denysenko, 27.
During the trip, Biden promised an additional $500 million in arms deliveries for Ukraine, mentioning in particular artillery ammunition, howitzers and Javelin anti-tank missiles.
Behind the eastern front line at a secret military repair yard, mechanics work on a BMP-3 infantry combat vehicle seized from the Russians during last year’s Ukrainian counter-offensive in the Kharkiv region.