White House gave Russia a heads up about Biden’s visit

WASHINGTON — The White House confirmed Monday that it gave Russia advance notice about President Biden’s surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday to avoid an accidental military clash between the two nuclear powers.

“We did notify the Russians that President Biden would be traveling to Kyiv. We did so some hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on a conference call.

“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 that we provided that notification,” Sullivan added.

Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as the anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaches on Friday and pledged the United States’ continuing support as well as an additional $460 million in military aid.

“One year later, Kyiv stands, Ukraine stands, democracy stands,” Biden said in remarks at the Mariinsky Palace. “The Americans stand with you and the world stands with you.”

Monday was the first time that Biden has traveled to Ukraine since the start of the war last Feb. 24, but he said it was his seventh visit overall, including stops when he was Barack Obama’s vice president.

The White House declined to immediately confirm details of the president’s trip, but Biden is believed to have flown Sunday to the city of Rzeszów in southeastern Poland via Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The Polish city is home to thousands of troops from the 101st Airborne Division after US forces were deployed there last year to reinforce NATO allies in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

From there, the president likely traveled to Kyiv by night train — a journey of around ten hours. Train travel has been the preferred method for world leaders to visit with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky since the Russian invasion — likely to avoid an accidental plane shootdown over Ukrainian territory. In June, for example French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and then-Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi rode the rails together to Kyiv. 

The airspace over Ukraine remains contested, with neither Ukraine, Russia nor their respective allies establishing supremacy over the year-long conflict. 

The trip to the war-torn country was carried out under intense secrecy — with Air Force One stealthily departing Joint Base Andrews in Maryland at 4:15 a.m. Sunday. Only two US journalists traveled with Biden from Washington — Wall Street Journal reporter Sabrina Siddiqui, who provided emailed pool reports once Biden arrived, and Evan Vucci of the Associated Press, who served as pool photographer.

White House Correspondents’ Association president Tamara Keith, a reporter for NPR, was aware of the trip and successfully pushed for additional journalists to be allowed to independently record the mission — resulting in 11 members of the press joining Biden’s entourage in Kyiv, including a CBS crew to capture pooled video.

Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer said Monday that “this visit was meticulously planned over a period of months” and that Biden only made the final decision to go ahead on Friday.

Meanwhile, the president played coy, telling reporters Feb. 9 that “there’s a possibility I may go to Poland, but that’s all” when a reporter asked about a possible side trip across the border. 

While in Kyiv, Biden took the opportunity to rebuke Putin, who expected to overrun the Ukrainian capital when he launched his invasion last February. 

“Putin thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided,” Biden said as he stood alongside Zelensky, who made his own stealth trip to Washington in December. “He thought he could outlast us. I don’t think he’s thinking that right now.”

“He’s just been plain wrong,” the president added. “One year later, the evidence is right here in this room. We stand here together.”

Putin is expected to respond to Biden’s “provocative” visit when he addresses Russia’s Federal Assembly on Tuesday, remarks that will include an update on what the Kremlin calls the “special military operation,” the TASS news agency reported. 

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, told reporters that Biden received security guarantees for his trip to Ukraine, but didn’t say who gave those assurances.

“Biden, having previously received security guarantees, finally went to Kyiv. He promised many weapons and swore allegiance to the neo-Nazi regime to the grave,” Medvedev ​said, according to TASS. “And, of course, there were mutual incantations of victory, which will come with new weapons and courageous people.”

The US president’s trip coincides with mounting skepticism of US financial aid among House Republicans and pressure for peace talks by some left-wing Democrats. On Sunday, several hundred protesters associated with anti-war groups and the Libertarian Party marched to the White House after speeches near the Lincoln Memorial by former Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii).

Biden will deliver a speech in Warsaw, Poland, to a large outdoor crowd on Tuesday evening before returning to the US. During a similar address in March, Biden said Putin “cannot remain in power” — prompting an aide to quickly tell reporters he was not calling for “regime change,” only for Biden to say he stood by his original words days later.