President's Day.
President Joe Biden is going to address the Ukraine-Russia conflict. He is expected to arrive in Poland. But he made a surprise trip to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. He appeared with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Biden has been itching to visit Ukraine for months, particularly after several of his counterparts in Europe all endured lengthy train journeys to meet with Zelensky in Kyiv. French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, as well as former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have all made visits to the country to demonstrate their support.
The highly secretive visit – which took place as air raid sirens could be heard ringing out around Kyiv while Biden walked alongside Zelensky around the gold-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral – comes at a critical moment in the 12-month conflict, with Russia preparing for an expected spring offensive and Ukraine hoping to soon retake territory.
Biden announced a half-billion dollars in new assistance, saying the package would include more military equipment, such as artillery ammunition, more javelins and Howitzers. And he said new sanctions would be imposed on Moscow later this week.
“One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,” Biden said.
The United States and other Western nations have been rushing arms, tanks and ammunition to Ukraine in the hopes of changing the trajectory of the war. By visiting in person, Biden is offering a singular image of American support for Zelensky, who has spent the past year attempting to rally the world behind his nation and appealing for greater levels of assistance.
Jake Sullivan, Biden's National Security Adviser worked behind the scenes to get the trip planned. Going into an active war zone with Russian military willing to strike anything in the air was really risky for Biden.
Biden’s public schedule didn’t reflect the trip, and White House officials repeatedly said last week that a visit to Ukraine was not in the works.
Biden only decided on Friday to go ahead with the visit after huddling with top members of his national security team in the Oval Office. A few hours before he departed, the United States informed Russia of the plans to visit the Ukrainian capital for “deconfliction purposes,” according to Sullivan.
Biden was presented with a range of options for a visit to Ukraine, but decided that a trip to Kyiv made the most sense, a source familiar with the matter said. As Biden was briefed over several months on the planning for a potential visit, the source said that Biden only once expressed concern about the risk of a visit to Ukraine – but that was about the extent to which his visit could endanger others, rather than about his own safety. Other officials were obviously extremely concerned about Biden’s own safety and prepared a series of security contingency plans.
On Saturday evening, before he departed, Biden went out to dinner with his wife in Washington. He wasn’t seen in public again until arriving in Kyiv on Monday morning.
Ukraine is an active war zone where the US military has no control, making Monday’s visit different from previous presidential trips to Iraq or Afghanistan. White House officials had repeatedly ruled out a visit earlier in the year.
The Friday session in the Oval Office was the culmination of months of work by a tiny handful of Biden’s top aides to plan the trip around the anniversary of the start of the war. The planning included the chief of staff’s office, the National Security Council and the White House Military Office, with input from a small number of officials at the US Secret Service, the Pentagon and the Intelligence Community, according to deputy national security adviser Jon Finer.
Biden was regularly briefed on the plans for the trip, including threat assessments, as the visit came together.
Discussions between the White House and the “highest levels of the Ukrainian government” helped bring the trip over the finish line.
“He was satisfied the risk was manageable,” Sullivan said.
“This was a risk that Joe Biden wanted to take,” said communications director Kate Bedingfield. “It’s important to him to show up, even when it’s hard, and he directed his team to make it happen no matter how challenging the logistics.”
Biden traveled with a relatively small entourage, including Sullivan, deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon and personal aide Annie Tomasini.
Zelensky himself traveled to Washington in December to meet Biden in the Oval Office and speak to a joint session of Congress – his first trip outside Ukraine since the war began.
The Ukrainian leader invited Biden to visit Kyiv months ago, saying he believed it was important for the US leader to see the situation up close.
I know some here in the U.S. are going to attack Biden for being in Ukraine and not East Palestine, Ohio, the site of one of the country's most disastrous train derailments in history.
First things first, the federal government is on the ground and is working with Ohio's officials. Gov. Mike DeWine said Biden is offering everything the government can offer and if necessary, he would come.
Second, why come when all he is going to expect is "Let's Go Brandon" nonsense.
Third, if the president came to Ohio, the idiotic critics will say its a photo-op.
Lastly, Norfolk Southern and the company responsible for having the toxic chemicals are the responsible parties. It's not Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's fault, it's not NTSB's fault, it's not the EPA's fault or the Democratic Party's fault.
Washed Up 45 is making a campaign stop in East Palestine to troll Biden. As he was the president from 2017 until 2021, during his term he rolled back the emergency break regulations that would have prevented trains from derailment.
