US President Joe Biden, who made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday became the first leader in modern history to visit a warzone outside the supervision of the US military, the move the White House also said carried certain risks even though Moscow was made aware of the visit.
The historic 23-hour trip to Kyiv was made possible as a result of a small group of senior officials at the White House and across US national security agencies working secretly in tandem for months to make it happen, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday, reported news agency AP.
Sullivan said the trip “required a security, operational, and logistical effort from professionals across the US government to take what was an inherently risky undertaking and make it a manageable risk.”
At 4:00 am (0900 GMT) on Sunday, the 80-year-old Democrat boarded an Air Force Boeing 757, known as a C-32. The plane, a smaller version of the normal plane used by presidents on international trips, was stationed much farther from where Biden would usually board.
Biden's started his journey in the middle of the night at a military airport hangar outside Washington. After Biden secretly boarded the Air Force jet, the call sign “SAM060,” for Special Air Mission, was used for the plane instead of the usual “Air Force One.” The plane was parked in the dark with the window shades down and took off from Joint Base Andrews at 4:15 am Eastern time.
After a brief stop in Germany for refueling, where the president stayed inside the aircraft, the plane switched off its transponder for the roughly hour-long flight to Rzeszow, Poland. He then boarded a train for the roughly 10-hour overnight trip to Kyiv at 8 am Monday.
The president made multiple stops around town over the next five hours where he moved in a white SUV rather than the presidential limousine. There was no announcement to the Ukrainian public that he was there. But with time it gained enough attention that word of his presence leaked out well before he could get back to Poland, which was the original plan.
Major streets in Kyiv and central blocks were cordoned off without explanation. People started sharing videos of long motorcades of cars speeding along streets where access was restricted — the first clues that Biden had arrived.
Even with Western surface-to-air missile systems bolstering Ukraine’s defenses, it was rare for a U.S. leader to travel to a conflict zone where the U.S. or its allies did not have control over the airspace.
Biden headed to the US Embassy for a brief stop before leaving the country by train back to Poland with tightly drawn curtains, a dining table, and a leather sofa.