Very significant moment on the world stage. President Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during this unannounced trip. It comes just days before the one year mark of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. This moment is highly significant. This morning, Biden sending a strong message of support to Ukrainians as air raid sirens wailed across Kiev, underscoring the very real risk involved in this trip. Both leaders spoke a moment ago about the weight of this historic moment President Biden, that is so important to signal for us and all we are all the weeks or months for confirmation. It’s good to be back in Kiev. I was telling you, the president one of your staff members on the flight from Washington to Poland to ask me how many times I’ve been to Kyiv.
This is my eighth trip. And much has changed, much of it back in Beijing, but also Ukrainian people stepped up in a way that few people ever have in their own defense and have apparently also embraced the notion of democracy no longer and discussions about whether or not a certain privileged people have control We have seen in coverage from all fronts this morning. Phil Mattingly is here with me in Warsaw. Clarissa Ward is standing by on the ground in Kiev. Fred Pleitgen is in Moscow and Kylie Atwood is at the State Department. Of course, this is a historic visit by President Biden is actually his eighth visit to Ukraine. His first, though, since Russia invaded. It’s a visit that he has said he has wanted to make since 11 months ago.
But now, of course, President Biden has finally made it under a shroud of secrecy. Clarissa Ward knows that well. She was watching this entire visit happen before it could actually be reported. Clarissa, the President Biden was there on the ground in Kiev. What could you see from your vantage, from your vantage So, Caitlin, we’re now here in the square where President Biden was. He was inside St Michael’s Church just behind me. And you could hear those air raid sirens start wailing. There was a moment where everybody was wondering whether he was actually going to come out of the church. He and President Zelensky came out of the church. They met up with two soldiers who were carrying wreaths, and then they proceeded to kind of march over to this area where you can see several wreaths.
You can also see a lot of television cameras. Of course, this is a huge news story here in Ukraine. And you can see behind me just there next to that reporter, this is the US wreath that was laid as President Zelensky and President Biden looked on. The two leaders then embraced the air raid. Sirens finally stopped wailing and president by then got into his motorcade. And I should say it was an extraordinarily huge motorcade. This entire area was completely blocked off to traffic. The streets were empty. Our live shot position is up on the balcony of the hotel behind me. And we had multiple visits from soldiers who told us under no circumstances were we to go out on the balcony.
At one stage, they came up even to tell us to stand back further from the window. So there was a lot of security that went into this. This is a trip that many people have been waiting a long time for. And as you heard from President Zelensky talking about how meaningful this was, Caitlin, what a strong signal of support. And that is something we’re hearing reflected again and again talking to ordinary Ukrainians. We needed this right now and we greatly appreciate it. Yeah. And there’s actual support that they are sending as well. Of course, it was a remarkable moment, though. Was this President Biden and president as long as they were walking into that the church I believe that’s behind you. Air raid sirens were actually going off in Kiev as President Biden was on the ground right And it’s interesting because, you know, the expectation had been that with the president here, it might be a quiet day.
The Russians almost certainly already knew he was here. They’d be unlikely to do something like, you know, extraordinary, like launching a missile attack on this city while the president was here. But when we heard those air raid sirens, the first thing you want to find out is what type of threat has been reported. In this case, it was MiG activity over Belarus. That, again, is something that we have on an almost daily basis but it does take on pretty loaded significance when you have the president of the United States in a church in the center of town still, Miles, away from the next border, the next border being Poland, where we presume obviously he is on his way to now. So it was a definitely a tense moment although you didn’t see that necessarily reflected on the ground. I will say that when we were watching the movements of people who were accompanying President Biden and President Zelensky, we’re very fast. A lot of running. This whole part of the puzzle only took 10 minutes. It was 5 minutes in the church the air race started wailing, 5 minutes here on the ground, laying the wreath. And then very quickly, President Biden was gone again. Yeah. And just a very small contingent with him. Typically, he travels with so many staffers with him, Clarissa. But also Phil Mattingly is live here in Warsaw. Where President Biden is headed after this.
It was actually what was supposed to be the first stop on his schedule, Phil, but of course, the White House had this secret trip that they had been planning. You know, we had not seen President Biden since he was out in Washington on Saturday night. And then he reappeared in Kiev at about 8:00 local this morning. What more do you know about the planning cell that went into this secret visit of President Biden’s look? Then there are a lot of details that are still not yet public by design, for security reasons. But we do know that top Biden advisers have been talking for several months about how to best symbolize this moment. They really were looking at the one year anniversary of the one year commemoration, I guess, of the Russian invasion and wanted to ensure that they had maximum impact in terms of the president’s efforts up to this point, not just from the U.S. support size side, but the durability of the international coalition they put together in part because they knew that there was no clear endgame coming any time soon. That was why they saw this as such a significant moment. Now, in terms of the trip itself.
As you noted, the last time we saw the president was on Saturday night. He was out to dinner with the first lady. We did not see him again until the video that you guys have been showing. What happened in between besides the White House putting out a public schedule that did not have this trip on it whatsoever, was the actual trip going underway at 4 a.m. around 4:15 a.m. on Sunday, Air Force One departed Andrews Air Force Base. There was no notice. Reporters that were on the trip had to give their devices to staff before they departed. The next time reporters were able to talk, the pool was able to give a timeline was 8 a.m. was when they arrived in this area. By eight 30 he was at the palace to meet with President Zelensky, the first lady as well. He was joined, as you noted, by just a small contingent of staffers. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley, Dillon Ambassador Bridget Brandt, and the deputy ambassador as well for their meetings. And again, it’s important to note this wasn’t just a symbolic photo, a moment for pictures and cameras.
They also did have a bilateral sit down between the two presidents and their top advisers to discuss kind of the current state of play. Also presents Walensky saying they were discussing a defense assistance of which the president and President Zelensky and his team continue to ask for more and faster as U.S. officials are quite aware of at this point in time. But I think more importantly, as you look and Kaitlan, you know this as well as anybody what the president said about the importance of this, showing that there is no doubt that there should be no doubt about the U.S. support, about the durability of that support and about the support of the Western Alliance that has been there since day one, I think was so critical. And then one last thing I would say is, you know, the president referencing the phone call he had with President Hilinski on the night of the invasion, a moment where even top administration officials, top Biden advisers weren’t sure the president’s Lewinsky would be president that much longer. They weren’t sure he would be standing that much longer. Now, 361 days later, not only is President Zelinsky still there, not only is he still standing, the President Biden was standing in Kiev with her.
