US President Joe Biden visits Kyiv ahead of Russia-Ukraine war anniversary

Ahead of the first anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war, the President of the United States of America (USA) Joe Biden made a secret and surprise trip to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, on Monday. According to the New York Times (NYT), he arrived there after an “hourslong” train ride from the border of Poland.

Biden departed from Washington DC covertly due to security reasons. He is already scheduled to arrive in Warsaw on Tuesday on a two-day trip. The White House had, on Sunday, issued a public schedule for Monday showing that Biden will be in Washington on Monday and leave for Warsaw in the evening. But he surprisingly paid a visit to Kyiv.

.@POTUS in Kyiv. Goes along with @ZelenskyyUa, the sounds of an air alarm sound. pic.twitter.com/Xq5YzP8uGv

— Oleksiy Goncharenko (@GoncharenkoUa) February 20, 2023

NYT report added that US officials have opted to not fly into Ukraine due to the dangers from missiles.

The war in Ukraine has been going on for almost a year now. The US, along with other allies, is supporting Ukraine with modern weapons. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a trip to Kyiv in September and Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, visited in November.

Last week, Blinken said that they had received information about China thinking of providing weapons to Russia.

“The concern that we have now is, based on information we have, that they’re considering providing lethal support,” Blinken told CBS’s “Face the Nation” shortly after he met with China’s counterpart Wang Yi last week.

“And we’ve made very clear to them that that could cause a serious problem for us and in our relationship,” he added.