By all accounts, President Joe Biden was enjoying a peaceful weekend in the White House. On Saturday, he joined his wife, Jill Biden, for dinner at a restaurant as part of a rare outing in the nation's capital. But, officials at the White House and other organizations were working hard behind the scenes to prepare for Vice President Biden's surprise visit to Kyiv to express support for Ukraine just days before the anniversary of Russia's invasion.
According to the White House, Biden decided to proceed with the trip on Friday after months of planning. Biden was taken to Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington, according to White House officials, where he boarded an Air Force plane at 4:15 a.m. (0915 GMT) on Sunday with a small group of aides. One reporter and a photographer, as opposed to his typical media pool, went along with him in the news media.
Zelenskyy declared that he is "extremely thrilled" to welcome Biden to Ukraine and that this is "really the most important visit" in the history of relations between the two countries.
This visit takes place during a particularly trying time for Ukraine when that country is fighting for its freedom and the freedom of the entire globe, he remarked. As the war entered its second year, Russia continued to launch missiles into Ukraine, raising concerns about the perils of the American commander-in-chief traveling there while under continuous assault. While Biden was on the ground, air raid sirens sounded.
"This unjustified and criminal Russia's war against Ukraine and the whole globe and democratic world has to stop with the liberation of Ukraine's entire territory from Russian occupation and the strong assurances of the long-term security for our nation as well as Europe and the entire world," he added, expressing hope that this year will become "a year of victory."
In a speech to both chambers of parliament on Tuesday, Putin will provide an update on the Ukraine crisis, the most significant confrontation with the West since the height of the Cold War, to Russia's political and military elite.
According to the Kremlin, he will also discuss his assessment of the current state of the world and his vision for Russia's future development in the wake of the West's harsh sanctions.
The president's visit serves as a demonstration to American voters at home and a statement to Russia of the Biden administration's commitment to aiding Ukraine. Karine Jean-Pierre, his press secretary, was questioned last week regarding polls indicating a waning US support for Ukraine.
She said that whenever the president speaks, he addresses the American people and the global community. Monday's message is to forcefully refute the minority of Republican voices that wonder how long the US can sustain Ukraine. The president had been eager to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the capital, among other Western officials who had visited Kyiv to express support since last year.
The Presidents' Day weekend and Mr. Biden's planned trip to Warsaw, Poland, presented an opportunity to stop in Kyiv. National security advisor Jake Sullivan said on Monday that a small group of top officials from the White House and various US national security agencies began working covertly for months to make it happen.
Flights from Western locations to Rzeszow carrying supplies and other cargo continued unabated while he was on the ground in Ukraine. In the meantime, many central blocks and significant thoroughfares in Kyiv were blocked off for no apparent reason.
The first indications that Mr. Biden had arrived were videos of huge motorcades of automobiles rushing through streets with gated access that people began to share. Sullivan, Jen O'Malley Dillon, the deputy chief of staff, and Annie Tomasini, the director of Oval Office operations, made up Mr. Biden's far smaller-than-usual retinue.
A small medical team, the official White House photographer, the military aide carrying the so-called "nuclear football" (a briefcase with the materials Mr. Biden could use to authorize a nuclear attack), and his Secret Service protection joined them. Instead of the customary 13 journalists, only two were present.
During the travel inside Ukraine, their electronics were turned off and given to the White House. A few Ukrainian-based journalists were called to a downtown hotel on Monday morning to meet them; they were not made aware that Mr. Biden was coming until just before his arrival.
Bringing two wreaths to the wall of memory honoring Ukrainian troops slain since 2014—the year Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and conflict backed by Russia began in eastern Ukraine—Mr. Biden and Mr. Zelenskyy trailed behind honor guards.
The first pictures of Mr. Biden in the city's center didn't appear on Ukrainian social media until later when the visit's secrecy broke.
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