While he was officially expected in Poland on Monday, the President of the United States went to kyiv for the first time since the start of the conflict, where he met Volodymyr Zelensky.
Joe Biden arrived in kyiv this Monday morning at 8 a.m., to everyone’s surprise, when the American president was officially expected in Warsaw. He met Volodymyr Zelensky in the morning. It is the first time he has visited Ukraine since the start of the conflict, a few days before the first anniversary of this war which began on February 24, 2022.
Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed this visit with enthusiasm, greeting on his Telegram account “an important sign of supportfor his country. Joe Biden expressed his support to him “unwaveringto Ukraine. The visit was short, the American president having left kyiv at midday, the White House said.
During this trip, the American president announced additional arms deliveries to Ukraine, amounting to 500 million dollars. These will notably contain new American HIMARS rocket launchers, and anti-missile systems. Joe Biden also announced that he would soon take new sanctions against Russia and the Russian oligarchs.
“The most important visit in the whole history of Ukraine”
After gathering in St. Michael’s Cathedral in kyiv, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky gave a press conference at the presidential palace. “This is the most important visit in the whole history of Ukrainedeclared Zelensky, recalling that he had already met his American counterpart for the first time since the beginning of the war, in Washington. “We fight for our freedom and that of our allies” he added, believing that the additional aid from the United States “will make the difference on the front“. “Russia has no chance of winning the warhe also claimed.
Joe Biden, for his part, recalled to reporters a telephone conversation he had had with Zelensky a year, to the day, before this visit, on the eve of the war: “It was a year ago, and it might have been the end of Ukraine. But a year later, kyiv still holds, Ukraine still holds, democracy still holds. And the United States stands with you. Ukraine is an important part of my heartsaid Joe Biden.
Joint press conference by Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky. Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP
Surprise visit, the Kremlin warned a few hours before
This visit under high security had not been announced: the announced program for Joe Biden’s trip to Europe did not mention a visit to Ukraine. He was due to arrive this Monday in Warsaw, the capital that has become the hub of Western aid to Kiev, in order to reassure his allies of his determination to continue his support in the face of the prospect of a long war, and also to try to recall the stakes of this war. Joe Biden was also due to meet the leaders of the nine Bucharest countries (B9), which together with Poland constitute the eastern flank of NATO, and are the most concerned about the Russian threat: Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: Biden expected in Poland to show his determination against Putin
During Joe Biden’s visit, according to journalists present on the spot, the anti-aircraft alerts would have sounded in the Ukrainian capital, when the two heads of state came out of the Saint-Michel cathedral where they had gathered for a moment. .
Sunglasses on his nose, Joe Biden quietly left the monastery accompanied by Volodymyr Zelensky, it was 11:30 a.m.: imperturbable, the American president and his Ukrainian counterpart then continued to discuss while walking, on the forecourt of the monastery with blue walls surmounted by several sparkling golden domes.
At a distance, around the two heads of state, neither the men in civilian clothes of Biden’s security service, nor the Ukrainian soldiers in fatigues, armed and helmeted, showed signs of agitation, until the end of the ‘alarm.
The White House has announced that the Kremlin had been warned, a few hours before the arrival of Joe Biden, of this surprise visit to kyiv.
Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky. DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP
Biden and Zelensky’s wandering continued, under blue skies and gripping cold, to the outside of the monastery grounds, towards the “Wall in memory of the defenders of Ukraine who fell during the Ukraine-Russia war“. Hundreds of photos of soldiers who have died since 2014, the year a conflict with Moscow-backed separatists in the east began, line the wall. To the slow rhythm of a drum, four Ukrainian soldiers in ceremonial uniform laid two wreaths at the foot of the memorial, one with a ribbon in the colors of Ukraine, the other in those of the United States.
Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky then gathered for a few minutes in front of the building while a bugler played the bell for the dead. Joe Biden, in a dark coat, and Volodymyr Zelensky, wearing a puffer jacket and khaki pants, then separated after giving each other a warm hug. Joe Biden left Kyiv shortly after 2 p.m. after passing through the United States Embassy, the last leg of a visit that had been shrouded in the utmost secrecy.