Biden was spotted outside St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shortly before noon local time. His visit capped an hours-long security lockdown as authorities blocked car traffic and even pedestrians from certain streets.
Biden has insisted the United States will continue to back Ukraine for “as long as it takes” despite flagging support among the American public and no near-term prospect of peace talks to end the conflict.
The Biden administration has provided some $30 billion in security aid since President Vladimir Putin sent Russian forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, initiating the largest ground war in Europe since World War II — one that already has cost his country and Ukraine hundreds of thousands of casualties.
Under Biden’s leadership, the U.S. and its NATO allies have gradually expanding the array of weaponry they have pledged to include heavy tanks.
While other world leaders have visited Kyiv to meet with Zelensky and tour the war-scarred city over the past year, Biden has stayed away due to security concerns and fears about the possibility of conflict between the world’s two largest nuclear powers, sending senior aides in his place. First lady Jill Biden made a surprise visit to Western Ukraine on Mother’s Day in May.
In a statement issued by the White House, Biden said his visit was intended to reaffirm American support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, which Russia has violated since 2014, when Putin annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and launched support for a separatist campaign in the eastern Donbas region.
“When Putin launched his invasion nearly one year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he could outlast us,” Biden said. “But he was dead wrong.”
The visit represented a major boost for Zelensky as he seeks to propel Ukrainian forces forward to recapture Russian-occupied territory, and appeals to his country’s partners for additional military support, including fighter jets. U.S. officials have so far declined to provide aircraft to Ukraine.
“Joseph Biden, welcome to Kyiv!” Zelensky said in a post on his Telegram feed. “Your visit is an extremely important sign of support for all Ukrainians.”
Biden’s trip was shrouded in secrecy and even greater security than other high-level visits. Biden had been due to leave for an announced visit to Poland from Washington on Monday evening but, according to a small group of reporters who traveled with Biden to Kyiv, actually departed Washington around 4 a.m. on Sunday.
Journalists accompanying Biden reported that they had agreed to withhold real-time details of the president’s movements until he departs, including information about how he arrived in the Ukrainian capital. The country’s airspace has been closed for the last year.
Viser and Woodson reported from Warsaw.
*This story has not been edited by The Infallible staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.
