President Joe Biden’s motorcade left the White House at around 3:30 a.m. Sunday. He didn’t resort to the big, flashy Air Force Ones for this trip. The president disappeared in the dark aboard an Air Force C-32, a Boeing 757 modified which is normally used for domestic travel to smaller airports.
about 20 hours laterBiden reappeared in central Kiev, Ukraine.
Biden’s surprise 23-hour visit to Ukraine on Monday marked the first time in modern history that an American leader visit a war zone that is not under US military protection: an undertaking that according to the White House entailed risks despite Moscow having received advance notice.
Over the next five hours, the president made several stops around the city in a white SUV instead of the presidential limousine. without any announcement to the Ukrainian public of his presence.
The best kept secret
But all that activity attracted enough attention that word of his presence leaked long before he could return to Poland, which was the original plan. To White House aides they were surprised that the secret had been kept so long.
However, Russia knew what the Ukrainian public didn’t. US officials they had informed Moscow of Biden’s trip.
The US president had been eager since last year to join the parade of other Western officials who visited Kiev to pledge their support, side by side with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the capital.
Biden’s planned trip to Warsaw, Poland, and the American Presidents’ Day holiday, offered a clear opportunity to add a stop in Kiev.
A small group of senior officials from the White House and US national security agencies they worked secretly for months to make this happenNational Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Monday. Biden only gave final approval on Friday.
Sullivan said the trip “required a security, operational and logistical effort by professionals from across the US government to work through what was an inherently risky project and turn it into a manageable risk.
Once Biden secretly boarded the Air Force plane, he was used to the plane the callsign “SAM060”, of Special Air Mission, instead of the usual “Air Force One”. It was parked in the dark with the shades drawn and took off from Joint Base Andrews at 4:15 am New York time.
After a refueling stop in Germany, where the president remained on board the plane, Biden’s plane he switched off his transponder for the approximately hour-long flight to RzeszówPoland, the airport that has served as a gateway for billions of dollars worth of Western arms and major visitors to Ukraine.
From there, boarded a train for the approximately 10-hour overnight journey to Kiev.
He arrived in the capital at 8 on Monday, was received by Ambassador Bridget Brink and boarded her motorcade which took him to the Mariyinsky Palace. Even when he was grounded in Ukraine, flights to Rzeszów carrying military equipment and other goods continued unabated from western cities.
On the roads
Meanwhile, in Kiev, many main streets and central blocks they were isolated without explanation. People began sharing videos of long caravans of cars hurtling down restricted-access roads — the first hints of Biden’s arrival.
Biden traveled with a much smaller entourage than usual: Sullivan, Jen O’Malley Dillon, White House deputy chief of staff, and Annie Tomasini, Oval Office operations director.
They were joined by their Secret Service detail, the military aide carrying the so-called “nuclear balloon”.” — the briefcase with which the president has control to activate the nuclear weapons of the United States —, a small medical team and the official photographer of the White House.
There were only two journalists on boardor instead of the usual 13. His electronic devices were turned off and handed over to the White House during his trip to Ukraine. A small number of Ukraine-based reporters were summoned to a downtown hotel on Monday morning to join them, not having been notified of Biden’s visit until shortly before he arrived.
Even with Western surface-to-air missile systems bolstering Ukraine’s defenses, it was unusual for an American leader to travel to a conflict zone where the United States or its allies had no control over the airspace.
The US military has no presence in Ukraine except for a small detachment of Marines guarding the embassy in Kiev, making Biden’s visit more challenging than visits by previous US leaders to war zones.
“We informed the Russians that President Biden would be traveling to Kiev,” Sullivan told reporters. “We did it a few hours before his departure with the aim of avoiding a conflict”. He declined to specify the exact message or to whom it was delivered, but said they were warned to avoid any miscalculation that could bring the two nuclear-armed nations into direct confrontation.
While Biden was in Kiev, US surveillance aircraft, including the E-3 Sentry airborne radar and the RC-135W Rivet Joint, an electronic surveillance aircraft, They were monitoring Kiev from Polish airspace.
The closure of Kiev’s usually busy streets has brought an eerie calm to the center of the capital. I was so silent that crows could be heard cawing as Biden and Zelensky walked from their motorcade to the golden-domed monastery of St. Michael under a sky as blue as the monastery’s outer walls.
Let’s go in and take a look, Biden said, wearing his signature aviator sunglasses against the glare. Presidents disappeared inside while heavily armed soldiers stood guard outside.
The cathedral bells rang at 11:30, followed shortly by air raid warnings at 11:34, just before the two men reappeared. The sirens were at first a distant howl that rose over the cityfollowed seconds later by cell phone app alerts in people’s pockets.
These warnings are voiced by Star Wars actor Mark Hamill and his Luke Skywalker voice urged people to take cover, with the caveat: don’t be careless. Your overconfidence is your weakness.
The two leaders walked at a moderate pace without any sign of concern through the monastery’s arched main gate to the square outside, where they parked the rusting hulks of wrecked Russian tanks and other armored vehicles as grim reminders of the war.
When the square is not blocked, as it was during the visit of the leaders, people come to look at the vehicles and many are taking selfies.
Biden seemed oblivious to the helmets as he and Zelensky followed wreath-wearing honor guards to the memorial wall honoring fallen Ukrainian soldiers since 2014, the year Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula into Ukraine, and Russian-backed fighting has broken out in eastern Ukraine.
It was just at that moment when The first images of Biden have appeared in the capital on Ukrainian social media and the secret visit became world news.
He is an example of a president who is not afraid to show up in Ukraine and support us, said Myroslava Renova, a 23-year-old Kyiv resident, after Biden’s visit became known.
Biden went to the US embassy for a quick stop before leaving the country by train back to Poland aboard a well-appointed carriage, with wood paneling, tightly drawn curtains, a dining table, and a leather sofa.
The completely clear announcement, even in Hamill’s voice, sounded at 1:07 pm, as Biden’s train was pulling away from the station.
“The air alert has ended”, said Hamill’s voice. “May the force be with you”.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.