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Inside Biden's 10-Hour Train Ride for His Surprise Visit to Ukraine
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February 21, 2023
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1:13Now PlayingPresident Joe Biden did little to tip his hand about his unannounced visit to Kyiv, heading to church on Saturday afternoon and then taking his wife out to dinner at a cozy Washington restaurant.
But by the pre-dawn hours Sunday, he was already crossing the Atlantic on a US military plane. It was the first leg of a journey to the Ukrainian capital, carried out under cloak-and-dagger secrecy after months of meticulous planning by a close circle of advisers.
Americans woke up on a public holiday, Presidents’ Day, to clips of Biden in his trademark aviator sunglasses strolling in the cold next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as air raid sirens blared in the background.
“Kyiv has captured a part of my heart,” he said standing alongside Zelenskiy while announcing $460 million in additional military aid.
This account of how Biden slipped into a war zone is based on US officials who spoke on the record after the president had departed the capital city. His trip began with a 4 a.m. departure from Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, continued through a 10-hour train-ride from Poland into Ukraine, and culminated in his arrival Monday morning in Kyiv, where he stayed five hours.
The war is at a pivotal stage, with a weariness setting in about the likelihood of a prolonged conflict that could put pressure on Ukraine to enter peace talks. Zelenskiy needed a shot in the arm and Biden came in person to provide that psychological boost two months after the Ukrainian leader’s own surprise visit to Washington in late December.
It was during a huddle in the Oval Office on Friday that Biden made his final decision to go. Even inside his own White House and Pentagon, very few people knew about it.
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