A world of advance settles in kyiv all this week, a year after the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine. The Ukrainian capital received a surprise visit from Joe Biden on Monday, a quick visit with strong symbolic and diplomatic significance.
Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky, arm in arm, walking for a few minutes, in the heart of kyiv, in front of the War Martyrs’ Memorial. It is an emblematic image, which the Ukrainian presidency had no doubt dreamed of for some time. Its impact is all the more striking as this visit came as a surprise, under a beautiful sun at the end of the morning of Monday February 20 in the morning.
The two presidents passed together in front of the famous Saint-Michel-du-Dôme-d’Or monastery, one of the most famous and sumptuous in the capital. Joe Biden had also put on his favorite aviator glasses, for the occasion, and a yellow and blue tie in the colors of Ukraine.
A visit with multiple messages sent
The visit of the American president lasted less than three hours, but it sends multiple messages, just one year after the start of the war. A message first of all, of course, to the Ukrainians: the United States stands by your side, and will stand by it, “as long as it takes”, as long as necessary. The American president reaffirmed this during a brief address at the presidential palace. Mariyinskywhile paying homage “to the heroism of Ukrainians”.
It is a message then, and perhaps above all, to Vladimir Putin. One way to pull the rug out from under him, since the Russian president is due to deliver a speech late Tuesday morning. It is a way of telling the master of the Kremlin that Washington is determined to obtain victory for Ukraine.
This visit is also a message sent to Western democracies, a way for Joe Biden to reaffirm his intention to pose as “leader of the free world”. Today’s date, February 20, is no accident: it is also the day Ukrainians commemorate the 2014 Maidan crackdown, the spirit of freedom and the overthrow of the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych.
Finally, it is a message to American voters: a way of telling them “Look, I’m in great shape, and I don’t hesitate to run the risk of going to the capital of a country at war”. President Joe Biden, who is said to intend to run for a second term despite his age, therefore wants to show that he is not the age of his arteries!
During this visit, the American president was able to experience the daily life of the inhabitants of kyiv, between Russian military threat and the desire to lead a normal life. Just as Joe Biden made his first public appearance in central Kiev, next to the monastery, anti-aircraft sirens sounded in the capital, as if to impress on the US president the reality of daily life in Kiev. and the alert was not formally lifted until an hour later.
A new contract for arms deliveries
This alert did not prevent Joe Biden, on full alert, from taking a short walk with Volodymyr Zelensky along the memorial wall in memory of the victims of the war since 2014 and the invasion of Crimea and it did not prevented, either, the Ukrainians from continuing to go about their business. They are now used to these daily or multi-daily alerts and for most of them, they no longer take care to take refuge in shelters. They continue their life.
This episode also came to confirm to the American president what is the priority need of the Ukrainians: ammunition and especially the whole panoply of anti-aircraft defenses to shoot down the missiles and drones launched by Russia. Joe Biden has promised a new armament plan, with anti-aircraft radars and ammunition as a priority. The Ukraine is trying to build veritable defense domes, in kyiv and in the main towns, somewhat like what Israel has built.
Life resumes when Joe Biden leaves
In Kiev, as soon as the American president left, life resumed its rights even more, there is a desire in the Ukrainian capital to lead the most normal life possible, as a challenge to Russia. As soon as Joe Biden’s passage was completed, the barriers that limited access to the center of Kiev were lifted, car traffic therefore restarted, with the usual traffic jams in the center, cafes and restaurants open until 11 p.m. curfew time.
Even if some businesses have closed, almost everything is working: schools, hospitals, businesses of all kinds, even tattoo parlors where Ukrainians are happy to have the word “volya” tattooed, meaning “will” or “freedom “. The Ukrainian flag is flying on many buildings, there are a few soldiers in the streets and the occasional power cut, but otherwise nothing visible to the naked eye: life has really resumed its rights.
At the Kiev station this morning, where Joe Biden arrived, probably by special train, there were even groups of vacationers, snowboards under their arms, who were returning from skiing in the Ukrainian resorts of the Carpathians in the South of the country. . It sounds surprising, but that’s also kyiv today: a big city that intends to challenge Vladimir Putin by asserting its westernized way of life.