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Joe Biden made his first ever visit to Kyiv on Monday as US president, overriding objections from his own security staff to make a gesture of solidarity with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
The US leader made the visit in near-total secrecy, ditching his usual transport jet Air Force One in favour of taking Ukraine’s state train service from the Polish border 400 miles east.
He laid flowers with Mr Zelensky at a war memorial and announced a half-billion dollar package of extra military funding for Ukraine, declaring America was “here to stay”.
“When Putin launched his invasion nearly one year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided,” Mr Biden said. “He thought he could outlast us. But he was dead wrong.”
Mr Biden’s visit went ahead despite concerns that he could be at risk in travelling to Kyiv, where Air Force One cannot travel because the airspace is closed.
According to reports, US officials originally suggested that he meet Mr Zelensky either in the western city of Lviv, near the Polish border, or on the border itself.
Mr Biden is said to have overridden the concerns, saying that he felt a visit to Ukraine was already long overdue, and that stopping short of Kyiv would not be seen as a sufficient gesture of support. Politically, this trip “needed to happen”, a senior White House told Rolling Stone magazine.
Mr Biden arrived in Kyiv at 8am local time, meeting Mr Zelensky and his wife, Olena, at the presidential office at Marinsky Palace.
Traffic in downtown Kyiv then ground to a halt as the pair, surrounded by heavy security, visited the gold-domed St Michael’s Church in the city centre.
They then laid wreaths at the Heavenly Hundred memorial, which bears the names of more than 5,000 Ukrainians who died in the country’s 2014 anti-Kremlin uprising and the separatist conflict that ignited in Crimea and the eastern Donbas region. Shortly after the two leaders left the memorial, air raid sirens wailed across the capital.
In joint remarks alongside Mr Zelensky, Mr Biden said the new half-billion dollar military package would include more artillery, Javelin anti-tank missiles and Howitzers. The US has already committed $30bn in security assistance to Ukraine, including Himars long-range missiles that have helped turn the course of the war.
Last month Washington also announced that it would supply Abrams tanks, complementing donations from Britain of Challenger tanks and European nations of German Leopard tanks.
Mr Zelensky said the two leaders had also spoken about the US possibly giving further long-range weapons not “supplied before”, although he did not give specifics.
The visit comes ahead of Friday’s anniversary of the outbreak of the war, which began at 5am on February 24 last year. “One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,” Mr Biden said.
“It’s the most important visit of the whole history of US-Ukraine relations,” added Mr Zelensky.
Mr Biden’s visit follows in the footsteps of many other world leaders, including Boris Johnson, who have all likewise travelled via train from Poland. US secretary of state Antony Blinken, defence secretary Lloyd Austin and CIA director Bill Burns have also made visits recently.
Mr Biden had been scheduled to arrive in Warsaw on Tuesday morning for a two-day visit to Europe, with White House officials repeatedly brushing off questions about whether he might also travel to Ukraine.
Explaining his decision to visit, Mr Biden said: “I thought it was critical that there not be any doubt, none whatsoever, about US support for Ukraine in the war. The Ukrainian people have stepped up in a way that few people ever have in the past.”
He insisted that there was still bipartisan support in Washington for the Ukrainian cause, despite some Republicans complaining of the mounting costs.
“For all the disagreement we have in our Congress on some issues, there is significant agreement on support for Ukraine,” he said. “It’s not just about freedom in Ukraine… It’s about freedom of democracy at large,” he said.
The visit comes as the conflict grinds on the country’s east, where heavy fighting around the Donbas town of Bakhmut is said to be claiming hundreds of lives a day on both sides. There is speculation that Mr Putin may use the anniversary of the war to launch a new assault on Kyiv, despite running low on capable infantry.
Mr Biden’s visit was welcomed by many in Kyiv, who felt he would not have come were he planning to downscale support for Ukraine.
“It is good that he has called by,” said Oleg Rossoha, 43, a businessman. “I would like tell the US president that we need to finish this d—head Putin – although I guess Mr Biden has been told that many times alread
Source:The Telegraph