Kyiv can expect a new US package that includes artillery ammunition, anti-tank weapons, and air surveillance radar as well as an additional $500 million in US assistance, as President Joe Biden announced reiterating the US’ unwavering support for Ukraine during his surprise trip to the country on Monday.
Biden said that they’ll stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes, announcing new military assistance for Ukraine and incoming sanctions against Moscow as he declared that Putin’s war of conquest is failing and praised the Ukrainian troops’ heroic fighting.
Experts say that the visit took everyone completely by surprise despite the widespread speculation that Biden might be traveling to Ukraine. The trip’s planning involved only a handful of people and was reportedly meticulously planned by several offices in the White House over a period of months.
The White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who accompanied Biden on the trip, told reporters that the US notified Moscow about Biden’s trip to Ukraine shortly before his arrival in Kyiv to avoid any chance of conflict.
According to Tatiana Stanovaya, a Russian political analyst, Moscow will see Biden’s surprise visit to Kyiv as further proof that the US has bet on Russia’s strategic defeat in the war which has irrevocably turned into a war between Russia and the West.
Since Biden arrived in Kyiv at a “critical juncture” in the war and a day before the scheduled major address by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Stanovaya noted that it will surely prompt introducing additional edits to Putin’s address that was already expected to be very hawkish and targeted at a demonstrative rupture of relations with the West.
Putin already calls the war in Ukraine he himself provoked a proxy war against the armed might of Washington and NATO.
Biden’s first visit to Ukraine since the Russian invasion is unprecedented in modern history since this is the first time an American president traveled to an active war zone without a large presence of the US military.
According to Sullivan, Biden was intently focused on discussing the coming months of fighting and long-range weapons during the talks with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, announcing more military support for Kyiv and more sanctions on Russia which prepares for a spring offensive while Ukraine hopes to retake its territory Russia seized over the past year.
