KYIV: President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, made an unannounced visit to Kyiv to express his solidarity and support to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
President Biden was on a visit to Poland to meet President Andrzej Duda, when he made this surprise visit to Kyiv.
``As the world prepares to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, I am in Kyiv today to meet with President Zelensky and reaffirm our unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. 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. But he was dead wrong,’’ said Biden.
Biden also said that Washington would stand with Ukraine.
Biden’s mission with his visit to Kyiv — and then Warsaw — is to underscore that the United States is prepared to stick with Ukraine “as long as it takes” to repel Russian forces even as public opinion polling suggests that U.S. and allied support for providing weaponry and direct economic assistance has started to soften. For Zelenskyy, the symbolism of having the U.S. president stand side by side with him on Ukrainian land as the anniversary nears is no small thing as he prods the U.S. and European allies to provide more advanced weaponry and to step up the pace of delivery.
“I thought it was critical that there not be any doubt, none whatsoever, about U.S. support for Ukraine in the war,” Biden said.
The visit also gives Biden an opportunity to get a firsthand look at the devastation the Russian invasion has caused on Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainian troops and civilians have been killed, millions of refugees have fled the war, and Ukraine has suffered tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure damage.
Biden announced an additional half-billion dollars in US assistance to Ukraine. This is in addition to $50 billion that has been already provided -including shells for howitzers, anti-tank missiles, air surveillance radars and other aid but no new advanced weaponry.
Zelensky said that he and Biden spoke about `long range weapons’ but didn’t share further details. Meanwhile, President Zelensky said that Biden’s visit is an extremely important sign of support for all Ukrainians. Zelensky also said that China supporting Russia in its war would lead to a world war.
Russia views Biden's visit as a provocative step.
"This is a provocative step on the part of Biden. It seems to me that he is going for an even greater exacerbation of relations. And I think that his behavior today will be taken into account when the address is delivered by the Russian president on Tuesday,’’ said Vladimir Zharikhin, Deputy Director of the Institute of CIS Countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to address the Federal Assembly on Tuesday and he is likely to respond to Biden’s provocative statements and visit to Kyiv.
(With additional inputs from AP)