UKRAINE: US President Joe Biden on Monday made a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv demonstrating his commitment to the country and its struggle as the war enters an uncertain new phase. The visit an uninformed event in view of security came days ahead of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Air raid sirens sounded across Kyiv shortly before the news was confirmed. Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko on Twitter said-“Yes, confirmed @POTUS in #Kyiv. Welcome Mr President! Looking forward to the announcements following the air raid sirens experience,” she wrote.
He will also visit Poland, where bilateral co-operation with President Andrzej Duda will be discussed. He is also set to meet with allies to reassure them of the U.S. commitment to the region and to helping Ukraine “as long as it takes.”
His visit to Poland is an opportunity to make the case to “countries that repudiate archaic notions of imperial conquest and wars of aggression about the need to continue to support Ukraine and oppose Russia,” said John Sullivan, who stepped down as the U.S. ambassador to Moscow in September. “We always preach, we are seeking to protect a rules-based international order. It’s completely done if Russia gets away with this.”
Earlier another group of US senators previously had met the Ukrainian President and other officials in Kyiv in January of 2023. US senators Lindsey Graham, Richard Blumenthal and Sheldon Whitehouse met Zelensky in the presidential palace and received a briefing on the country’s security situation, according to the Ukrainian president’s office.
Zelensky himself traveled to Washington in December to meet Biden in the Oval Office and speak to a joint session of Congress — his first trip outside Ukraine since the war began. The Ukrainian leader invited Biden to visit Kyiv months ago, saying he believed it was important for the US leader to see the situation up close.