Feb. 20 (UPI) — U.S. President Joe Biden departed Kyiv on Monday after spending several hours with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, walking around the central portion of the capital and pledging additional support.
It was Biden’s first visit to the country since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started nearly one year ago. Biden, Zelensky and their teams discussed future support for Ukraine during the Russian war.
“This conversation brings us closer to victory,” Zelensky said, standing next to Biden. “The results of this visit will surely be seen and will surely have repercussions on the battlefield in liberating our territories.”
Biden praised Zelensky and Ukraine for their determination to keep from falling to Russia over the past year.
“Unchecked aggression is a threat to all of us,” Biden said. “One year later, Kyiv stands and Ukraine stands. Democracy stands, Americans stand with you and the world stands with you. Kyiv has captured a part of my heart.”
Biden’s trip marked the first time in modern U.S. history that a president entered a war zone with no active U.S. military presence. Ukrainian authorities had shut down much of central Kyiv for the visit.
“Russian planes were in the air and tanks were rolling across your border,” Biden said to Zelensky. “You told me you could hear explosions in the background, I’ll never forget that. And the world was about to change. I remember it vividly.”
The Department of Defense authorized more support for Ukraine on Monday. The United States will send additional ammunition for the Lockheed Martin HIMARS, a long-range rocket launcher, as well as howitzers.
Additionally, the Biden Administration approved a supply of Javelin missiles, anti-armor rockets, artillery rounds, mortar rounds, night vision devices, air surveillance radar systems and more.
The latest munitions authorization is valued at an estimated $460 million, the department said.
The package is also the 32nd drawdown of U.S. arms and equipment for Ukraine since August of 2021.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday also authorized an additional $10 million to support ongoing emergency assistance to support the war-torn country’s energy infrastructure amid its targeting by Kremlin forces.
Biden’s trip surprised many, completed before his planned trip to NATO ally Poland. He only confirmed the trip early Monday in a White House statement.
“When [Russian President Vladimir] Putin launched his invasion nearly one year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he could outlast us. But he was dead wrong,” Biden said in the statement.
White House officials described the trip to reporters as “historic” and “unprecedented” that sends the message of Biden’s commitment to the Ukrainian people.
“He wanted to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with President Zelensky and remind the world, as we approach the one-year anniversary of the invasion, that Kyiv still stands and the United States will not be deterred from standing with Ukraine,” White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said via teleconference.
Zelensky posted a photo of him and Biden shaking hands in Kyiv on Telegram.
“Joseph Biden, welcome to Kyiv! Your visit is an extremely important sign of support for all Ukrainians,” Zelensky said.
Biden said he talked with Zelensky and his administration about new support: “another delivery of critical equipment, including artillery ammunition, anti-armor systems, and air surveillance radars to help protect the Ukrainian people from aerial bombardments.”
Biden said more sanctions on Russia are coming, as well.
“We will announce additional sanctions against elites and companies that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine,” he said.
White House officials said the trip was meticulously planned over the last several months, with Biden giving the final sign off on it on Friday from the Oval Office.
Russia was notified of the trip “some hours before his departure for de-confliction purposes,” White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said.
“I won’t get into how they responded or what the precise nature of our message was, but I can confirm that we provided that notification,” he said.
The surprise visit came to an end late Monday with Biden traveling from Kyiv to Poland’s Rzeszw-Jasionka Airport, where he arrived at 10:04 p.m., local time, and boarded Air Force One for the roughly 50-minute flight to Warsaw.
Biden landed in Warsaw at 11:13 p.m. for his two-day visit to Poland, where Sullivan said the president will reiterate the point he made during his secret trip — which is that the democratic world stands together against Russia’s aggression.
“President [Vladimir] Putin thought that Ukraine would cower and that the West would be divided, indeed that the West would be weak,” Sullivan said. “And he got the opposite of that across the board.”
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