Roving Periscope: Ahead of Feb 24, US President Joe Biden secretly visits Ukraine

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: Just three days ahead of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, US President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to the war-torn nation’s capital, Kyiv, on Monday, the New York Times reported.

The US President arrived in Kyiv after a long train drive from the Poland border in what is viewed as a demonstration of his administration’s unwavering resolve to help Ukraine.

After Biden and his wife dined at a restaurant on Saturday night, he departed Washington without notice on his visit conducted covertly because of security concerns, the newspaper said.

He was publicly scheduled to arrive in Warsaw on Tuesday (February 21) morning on a two-day visit. His officials had denied he had any plans to visit Ukraine as well. On Sunday night also, the White House issued a public schedule for Monday showing Biden still in Washington and leaving in the evening for Warsaw, when in fact he was already half a world away, the NYT reported.

“President Biden will make it clear that the United States will continue to stand with Ukraine, as you’ve heard him say many times, for as long as it takes,” John F. Kirby, a top spokesman for the National Security Council, said on Friday before Mr. Biden’s departure.

With his secret visit, President Biden has made American support for Ukraine the fulcrum of his argument for a revitalized alliance in Europe, and he had told advisers that he wanted to mark the first anniversary of the Russian invasion as a way of reassuring allies that his administration remains committed to protecting them.

In the ongoing war, his Kyiv visit is significant. Apparently tired of the war stretching longer than they presumed last year and its unfolding effects on their own economies, some of America’s staunchest allies wanted Ukraine to begin negotiating a peace deal that might involve giving up territory that Russia annexed.

Even in the US, the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, and some of his fellow Republican lawmakers have demanded an end to what they call “a blank check” for the war effort.

President Biden’s surprise visit came just a day before a scheduled speech by his Russian counterpart Vladimir V. Putin on Tuesday. President Putin is expected to speak about Russia’s war effort amid indications that a spring offensive in Ukraine is already underway.

The US President will meet President Andrzej Duda of Poland on Tuesday morning and also deliver a speech from the Warsaw Castle later that afternoon, thus creating a split-screen image of him and Putin speaking about Ukraine on the same day.

It was unclear whether his schedule would change because of the visit to Kyiv, the NYT said.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has turned into a long, brutal slog, with Ukrainian forces — backed by the US and its Western allies — putting up a fierce fight, especially in the east.

President Biden’s visit to Kyiv reminds the secret missions flown by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama to Iraq (2003) and Afghanistan (2010) during the height of the wars in those countries amid the presence of American troops on their soils

But Biden’s trip to Ukraine is different as the US sent no troops there, fearing a Russian retaliation. Last year, American officials traveled to and from Ukraine on the overnight train from Poland for a seven-hour-long but more secure journey. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken made the trip in September and Jake Sullivan, the US President’s National Security Adviser, visited in November.

Officials declined to say whether President Biden would announce new weapons shipments to Ukraine during his previously announced trip to Poland.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had also secretly visited Washington just before Christmas Day last year, his first trip outside Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion.  He told lawmakers, among other things, that “We defeated Russia in the battle for minds of the world.”

Two days later, the US Congress approved nearly USD 50 billion in additional emergency aid for Ukraine, much of its military equipment aimed at allowing the country to fight back against Russia. That pushed the total amount of US aid approved for Ukraine since the war started to over USD100 billion.

While the US President is still opposed to supplying fighter jets to Ukraine, he is now willing to provide other equipment, like M1 Abrams tanks, and Patriot air defense batteries to the war-ravaged country and train its troops to use them.

In the long-drawn-out and expensive war, thousands have died and millions of Ukrainians fled to neighboring countries like Poland as refugees.