US President Joe Biden on Monday made an unannounced visit to Kyiv, Ukraine ahead of the first anniversary of the full-scale invasion by Russia. Biden said Ukraine will get a new military aid package worth $500 million, which will be announced on Tuesday.
Air raid sirens blared across the Ukrainian capital as Biden visited Kyiv but there were no reports of Russian missiles or air strikes. Ukraine’s Zelenskiy said he and Biden discussed long-range weapons during the POTUS’ visit.
The White House said that Biden would announce the delivery of critical equipment including including artillery ammunition,anti-armor systems,air surveillance radars to help protect the Ukrainian people. Biden is set to announce additional sanctions against elites and companies that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine, it added.
“One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,” Biden said.
Biden was due to visit Poland today. The White House had said there are no plans for Biden to cross into Ukraine, but the proximity to the war zone raised a few doubts about the visit happening.
He was one of the few major allies who hadn't yet visited the country. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz went to Kyiv back in June. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was due to visit Monday.
Biden plans to meet Polish President Andrzej Duda and leaders of the so-called Bucharest Nine group of eastern-flank NATO allies during his February 21-22 visit.
Biden last visited Warsaw in late March, a month after the invasion, and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin in a speech at the capital’s former royal castle.
The war which began on February 24 last year has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, driven millions from their homes and reduced cities to rubble across swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine.
There has been little change on the vast frontline in recent months as both sides prepare for offensives expected in the spring, Russia boosted by thousands of conscripts and Ukraine fortified with Western battle tanks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Russia had suffered "extraordinarily significant" losses near the town of Vuhledar in the eastern Donbas region, which Moscow claimed to have annexed in September.
"The situation is very complicated. And we are fighting. We are breaking down the invaders and inflicting extraordinarily significant losses on Russia," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
Zelenskiy referred to several towns where fighting has been focused for months, saying "the more losses Russia suffers there, in Donbas - in Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Marinka, Kreminna - the faster we will be able to end this war with Ukraine's victory".Russia's defence ministry said on Saturday that its forces had captured Hrianykivka, a village in the eastern Kharkiv region that is well to the north of the hottest part of the front, which is around Bakhmut.
Ukraine's General Staff on Monday said its forces "repelled Russian attacks in the areas of the Hrianykivka village", but that the Russians continued to heavily shell the area with artillery.
NATO SUPPORT
Ukrainian officials have urged U.S. Congress members to press Biden's administration to send F-16 fighters to Kyiv, saying the aircraft would boost Ukraine's ability to hit Russian missile units with U.S.-made rockets, U.S. lawmakers said.
The lobbying came over the weekend on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in talks between Ukrainian officials, including Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and Democrats and Republicans from the Senate and House of Representatives.
Biden last month said "no" when asked if he would approve Ukraine's request for Lockheed-Martin-made F-16s.
But administration officials, speaking on Sunday, said the United States should focus on providing weapons that can be used immediately on the battlefield, rather than fighter jets that require extensive training.
Even so, they did not rule out providing F-16s.
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