President Joe Biden reiterated the United States’s support for Ukraine on Monday while on his unannounced visit to Kyiv.
“We have every confidence you’re going to continue to prevail,” Biden said during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding that the U.S. will support its Eastern European ally for “as long as it takes,” per BBC.
HOW BIDEN’S SNEAKY TRIP TO UKRAINE CAME TOGETHER
Biden’s trip to Kyiv included the unveiling of a new aid package to Ukraine that’s valued at $500 million. The president has since landed in Poland, where he is expected to make a speech on Tuesday.
Other members of the Biden administration are visiting other countries across Eurasia, such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Greece.
Ahead of Friday’s first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “dead wrong” to think Russia could outlast Ukraine and its Western allies. Putin is expected to make a state of the nation speech Tuesday in Moscow, offering a stark contrast between the two leaders and how they view the war in Ukraine.
The White House informed Russia of Biden’s planned visit ahead of time, according to Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, in an attempt to avoid conflict. But the president’s visit to Ukraine did not go over well in Moscow, according to CNN, where military circles saw the move as an upstaging of Putin on the eve of his major address, in which he is expected to celebrate Russia’s efforts in the war.
⚡️Security in Moscow is being tightened, Putin speech in roughly an hour. pic.twitter.com/O1sbqrjmEA
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) February 21, 2023
The U.S. commander in chief’s very presence in Kyiv, while diligently planned, underscored the security of the capital city that Russia hoped to seize months ago.
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Biden is expected to return home to Washington on Wednesday.
