(Kyiv) US President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Monday, promising new armaments and “unwavering” support for his Ukrainian ally, days before the first anniversary of the Russian invasion.
It was in the greatest secrecy that the American leader left the United States overnight from Sunday to Monday. The White House did not specify how he got to Kyiv, but all Western leaders take the train in Poland to reach the Ukrainian capital.
“As we are days away from the first anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, I am in Kyiv to meet with President Zelensky and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to democracy, sovereignty and justice. territorial integrity of Ukraine,” the US president tweeted.
Once in Kyiv, he announced that the United States would once again increase its aid to Ukraine.
“I will announce the delivery of other essential equipment, including artillery ammunition, anti-armor systems and air surveillance radars,” assured the American president, according to a press release from the White House.
During a press point with his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, he mentioned 500 million dollars of additional assistance, the details of which will be announced in the days to come.
“I thought it was essential that there be no doubt about US support for Ukraine,” he said.
Mr. Biden left the Ukrainian capital in the early afternoon. He is expected to visit Poland, one of Ukraine’s main European backers, on Tuesday.
PHOTO GLEB GARANICH, REUTERS
US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
The latter country has a crucial need for long-range ammunition and tanks to oppose a new Russian offensive and to retake the territories occupied by the Moscow army in the east and south.
Mr. Zelensky thus welcomed the expected deliveries of American Abrams tanks, announced a few weeks ago after long procrastination and insisted on the needs of his army for artillery ammunition with a range of more than 100 kilometers. Washington has promised some, but their number and the timing of their dispatch remain uncertain.
Anti-aircraft alerts
The Ukrainian head of state also confirmed that he had discussed long-range weaponry with Mr. Biden, a “very important” subject, since Ukraine needs such highly precise systems to strike Russian supply lines and overcome its lack of men and armaments.
“This conversation (with the US president) brings us closer to victory,” Zelensky said.
This first visit to Kyiv by Mr. Biden and the first by an American president to Ukraine since 2008 follows those of many European leaders in the Ukrainian capital and that of Mr. Zelensky in Washington in December.
The Ukrainian president saw it as an “extremely important sign of support”, noting that the two leaders wanted to discuss “how to win (the war from) this year”.
According to him, American military support for Ukraine demonstrates that Russia “has no chance of winning”.
The American president for his part hammered that “the war of conquest” of Russian President Vladimir Putin was “failing”.
“Putin thought Ukraine was weak and the West divided,” he noted, “he just got it all wrong.”
The anti-aircraft alerts also sounded at a time when Joe Biden was alongside President Zelensky, coming out of a church, without causing panic.
They also gathered in front of a memorial dedicated to the Ukrainian soldiers killed.
The American president expressed his admiration for the resilience of the Ukrainians: “It is more than heroic”.
For his part, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba said that Mr. Biden’s trip showed that “no one is afraid anymore” of Russia.
Ukraine has faced escalating fighting in the east of its territory in recent weeks, with Russia hoping to break through the front to regain the initiative after humiliating setbacks in the fall.
Speeches by Putin and Biden
Vladimir Putin is due to deliver a major annual speech on Tuesday to the Russian political elite, an event that should be largely devoted to the war in Ukraine.
Mr. Biden will be in Warsaw and must also speak.
The master of the Kremlin launched the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, claiming that the latter wanted to orchestrate a “genocide” of the Russian-speaking populations of its eastern regions.
But the offensive, which was to be lightning, quickly bogged down and, in the spring of 2022, Mr. Putin had to give up taking Kyiv, withdrawing his forces from northern Ukraine.
At the end of the summer, faced with a Ukrainian army reinforced by very significant Western military aid, the Russians had to abandon the northeast, then in November the city of Kherson in the south.
Since then, the front has been largely stable, even if the Russian forces have redoubled their efforts in the east, in particular with a view to taking the town of Bakhmout, today largely destroyed.
Observers and experts believe that Ukraine and Russia want to launch major offensives in late winter or early spring.
Russian forces have suffered heavy casualties, although these have not been officially acknowledged, and Moscow is now portraying the war as a Western-orchestrated proxy conflict against Russia.
Finally, China, an ally of Russia, has been accused by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken of considering supplying weapons to the Russians.
Statements qualified as “false information” Monday by Wang Wenbin, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, noting that it is the Americans who “constantly send weapons to the battlefield”.