KYIV — U.S. President Joe Biden has left Kyiv after spending more than five hours in the Ukrainian capital in a visit to underscore Washington’s support for Ukraine just days ahead of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, a move that has rattled global security.
Biden met his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, at the Mariyinskiy Palace in the center of the Ukrainian capital on February 20 and promised $500 million in new arms deliveries at a time when Western allies are looking to project a united front against Russia, which is expected to launch a new offensive in the war in the coming weeks.
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“One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden said as he spoke from a podium decorated with the U.S. and Ukrainian flags. “And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you.”
In an earlier statement announcing the visit, Biden said he was making the unannounced visit to reaffirm Washington’s “unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.”
“[Russian President Vladimir Putin] is counting on us not sticking together…. He thought he could outlast us. I don’t think he’s thinking that right now. God knows what he’s thinking, but I don’t think he’s thinking that. But he’s just been plain wrong. Plain wrong,” Biden added.
Zelenskiy called the visit an “extremely important sign of support for all Ukrainians” as they near the one-year anniversary of the invasion on February 24.
“Right now, in Ukraine, the destiny of the international order…is being decided,” Zelenskiy said through an interpreter to Biden.
On the ground, the effects of Biden’s visit to a population that has had to endure a year of attacks were palpable.
Yulia Payevska, a 54-year-old Ukrainian paramedic and founder of a volunteer ambulance corps called Taira’s Angels, said the U.S. president’s visit to St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv was key because it “showed respect for our struggle and lost ones.”
It also had broader implications, she said.
“I think this is, first of all, a demonstration to the Russians that nobody is afraid of them; the free world has finally realized that they are not as scary as they would like it to believe,” she said.
Olena Shkarinska, a 45-year-old housewife in Kyiv said the U.S. president’s visit “shows that his [Biden’s] support is serious.”
Russian officials downplayed the Biden visit — with Vladimir Rogov, a Moscow-installed official in the occupied Zaporizhzhya region, saying that Zelenskiy “looked like a servant next to Biden.”
The German government called the visit a “good signal,” while Poland said it welcomed it as an indication of Washington’s commitment to Kyiv in its war against Russia.
Biden stopped in Kyiv as he traveled from the United States to neighboring Poland for a visit. Speculation he’d make such a stop had been rampant, but many thought that it wouldn’t happen given that neither Ukraine nor its allies have control over the airspace where Biden needed to fly.
WATCH: U.S. President Joe Biden said “Kyiv stands and Ukraine stands” during a surprise visit to the country on February 20, days before the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Speaking alongside his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, he added: “Americans stand with you and the world stands with you.”
U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that Russia had been informed in advance about Biden’s visit to Kyiv.
“Because of the sensitive nature of those communications, I won’t get into how they responded or what the precise nature of our message was, but I can confirm we provided notification,” he said, adding that the information was provided a few hours ahead of Biden’s trip.
Washington has so far not provided details on how Biden reached Kyiv. Biden’s delegation said details of the itinerary would be provided later once the information had been released by security services.
The New York Times reported that the U.S. president took a 10-hour train ride to Kyiv from Poland.
During his Kyiv visit, Biden announced another delivery of $500 million worth of “critical equipment” to Ukraine, including artillery ammunition, anti-armor systems, and air surveillance radars to help protect Ukrainians from aerial bombardments.
The Pentagon later released details of the new aid package.
Later this week, he said Washington would announce additional sanctions against elites and companies “that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine.”
In Photos: Biden Visits Ukraine Days Ahead Of Invasion Anniversary
U.S. President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv on February 20, just days ahead of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the country.
The visit comes as Russian forces continue to pound military positions and civilian settlements in eastern and southern Ukraine, despite what Zelenskiy called “extraordinarily significant” Russian losses in key disputed areas of the Donetsk region.
Russia carried out 10 missile strikes and 25 air strikes in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions as well as the southern Zaporizhzhya region, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said in its daily report, adding that 62 attacks from multiple rocket launchers were also registered along the front line.
“The enemy continues to focus its main efforts on conducting offensive actions in the Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Shakhtar directions,” it said.
The General Staff said civilians were wounded and killed in the shelling, without offering details. It warned that the threat of Russian strikes remained high across Ukraine.
Zelenskiy said on February 19 that his forces had inflicted “extraordinarily significant” losses on Russia’s military in the fighting in Donetsk around Bakhmut and Vuhledar, a town that is close to the dividing line between the eastern and the southern theaters of the war.
“The situation is very difficult,” Zelenskiy said in a video address on February 19.
“We are breaking the occupier and are inflicting extremely significant losses on Russia. I repeat again and again: The more Russia loses there, the faster we will be able to end this war with the victory of Ukraine.”
Ukrainian military drone footage posted last week appeared to show Russian lost nearly 30 armored vehicles, including tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, in fighting around Vuhledar, which had a population of about 14,000 before the war.
Ukraine reportedly has also suffered heavy losses, but neither side has provided casualty figures for its forces, and battlefield claims are difficult to independently verify.
