Biden’s surprise Ukraine visit signals commitment — and sends message to Moscow

The dramatic and unannounced visit to Kyiv by US President Joe Biden, and accompanying pictures of him and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy casually walking outside the Orthodox Cathedral of St.

Social media – even traditional – is just on fire.

Far from the political theater in the national capital of Ukraine, people in the winter and war-wasted capital of Kherson province are seen occasionally bending over their phones watching Telegram and Twitter videos of events.

Kherson was one of four regions ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin to be annexed last September and was also the scene of a humiliating defeat for the Russian army, which retreated across the Dnipro River.

But there is still artillery and rocket fire every day, including 76 attacks in the last 24 hours, the image shown during Biden’s visit caused an almost visceral reaction because it gave Ukrainians a kind of validation that the country and the people – who see themselves. is fighting for existence for a very long time – for a very long time.

Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, a spokesman for the military administration in Kherson, said his first reaction was more practical and less lofty. They hope and pray Biden’s visit means more air defenses on the way to Ukraine. (Biden announced air surveillance radar as part of a new $500 million US weapons package).

“We see missiles flying through Kherson to other parts of Ukraine and if they can be shot down here, it will help a lot,” Tolokonnikov said.

He said he was surprised that the US president had shown “courage” to go to Kyiv while still under threat of missile attacks, and that he had personally done a lot for “people’s morale” in Kherson and elsewhere along the region. the front line.

Foreign policy experts say the political message Biden is sending to Moscow is unclear and will likely whip up Russian ultra-nationalists, who often paint Zelenskyy as a stooge of the West and an emissary for NATO.

“This is the boilerplate narrative that comes from it [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” said Dominique Arel, chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa.

He said the West, in many respects, had to be dragged into supporting Ukraine by constant political pressure from Kyiv and through “a kind of public humiliation through social media and public opinion.”

Scenes like those seen on Monday reinforce the significant social impact of the war in Ukraine, which has begun to see its place in western civilization as “a fortress against the real threat of fascism, the threat of Russia,” Arel said.

Matthew Schmidt, professor of political science at the University of New Haven Connecticut and a former instructor at the US Army War College, agreed and said he believes the visit signals “full membership of Ukraine in the shared Western value system.”

He also said the political message Biden is sending will have a significant impact at home with the American electorate, which according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, is getting tired — maybe a little bored. – by war in Eastern Europe.

The survey, published last week, suggests support among the American public for providing Ukraine with arms and direct economic aid has weakened since the full-scale Russian invasion nearly a year ago.

Forty-eight percent said they were in favor of the U.S. providing weapons to Ukraine, with 29 percent opposed and 22 percent saying they either disagreed or opposed. In May 2022, less than three months into the war, 60 percent of US adults said they were in favor of sending Ukraine weapons. Americans are roughly evenly split on whether to send government funds directly to Ukraine, the survey said.

Biden’s visit signals that he is effectively doubling down on political support, Schmidt said, because the administration cannot be seen as losing Ukraine to Russia.

“I think that the Biden administration has gone through the motions to carry out the victory of Ukraine on the battlefield,” said Schmidt.

“I think that in the end, it’s true, we decided to provide tanks after hemming and hawing. But the problem is, hemming and hawing is needed in American politics before finally making a decision, it’s the right decision. You know, the decision that everyone wants to make in end.”