President Joe Biden made a surprise President’s Day visit to Ukraine on Monday ahead of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
A senior Ukrainian official in Kyiv said Biden’s visit is in part to announce “big new arms deliveries” from the U.S. and the 54-member Ukraine Contact Group of nations.
“It looks like Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign starts in Kyiv,” another Ukrainian official said an hour before the president stood alongside Ukrainian President Voldoymyr Zelensky to confirm his anticipated arrival in the capital.
Biden had been set to deliver remarks about the ongoing conflict in Poland on Tuesday before the anniversary itself on Friday, but his high-risk excursion into Ukraine was kept secret for security reasons. Kyiv has been subjected to numerous deadly rocket barrages since the war began last February.
Biden was filmed on Monday morning walking alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky despite air raid sirens sounding throughout Kyiv. The alarm came after Russian aircraft were spotted taking off from airfields in Belarus, the Kyiv Independent reports.
The leaders were seen walking together near St. Michael Cathedral in the center of the Ukrainian capital heading toward a memorial for soldiers killed in fighting against Russia since 2014.
Hours before Biden’s appearance under heavy guard alongside Zelensky in Mykhailivska Square, Ukrainian officials told The Daily Beast that the city was under a complete security lockdown.
The shroud of secrecy over Biden’s unannounced visit, they added, was made all the more mysterious by no visible indications of the standard protective measures that normally accompany a presidential visit.
Describing the scene, one official said, “it’s a clear day in Kyiv, and there is no Air Force One or anything else in the sky to suggest Biden is in Ukraine.”
Indeed, Biden’s trip to war-torn Ukraine looks to be the first time a U.S. President has decided to abandon the usually chiseled-in-stone safety precautions of his predecessors.
“I will announce 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.
