KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – President Joe Biden’s motorcade left the White House around 3:30 a.m. Sunday. There was no big, flashy Air Force One for this trip — the president disappeared into the darkness in an Air Force C-32, a modified Boeing 757 normally used for domestic trips to small airports.
The next time he appeared – 20 hours later – was in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine.
Biden’s surprise 23-hour visit to Ukraine on Monday was the first time in modern history that a US leader has visited a war zone outside the US military — a feat the White House says carries some risk even if Moscow is given the nod. .
Over the next five hours, the president made several stops in the city – driven in a white SUV rather than a presidential limousine – without any announcement to the Ukrainian public that he was there. But all these activities drew attention to the fact that word of his presence leaked out before he could return to Poland, which was his original plan. Aides in the White House were shocked at the secrecy they were keeping.
But Russia knows what the Ukrainian public does not. US officials have notified Moscow of Biden’s trip.
The president has been itching since last year to join a parade of other Western officials who have visited Kyiv to pledge support for standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the capital.
Biden’s planned trip to Warsaw, Poland, and the President’s Day holiday provide an obvious opening for a stop in Kyiv. A small group of senior officials in the White House and among the US national security agencies worked in secret for months to make it happen, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday. Biden only gave the final sign on Friday.
Sullivan said the trip “requires security, operational, and logistical efforts from professionals across the U.S. government to do what’s at risk and make the risk manageable.”
After Biden was hidden in an Air Force jet, the call sign “SAM060,” for Special Air Missions, was used for the plane instead of “Air Force One.” It was parked in the dark with the window-shades down, and took off from Joint Base Andrews at 4:15 Eastern time.
After a refueling stop in Germany, where the president was detained on the plane, Biden’s plane turned off its transponder for an hour-long flight to Rzeszow, Poland, an airport that has been the gateway for billions of dollars in Western arms and VIP visitors to Ukraine. From there, he boarded a train for an overnight trip of about 10 hours to Kyiv.
He arrived in the capital at 8am on Monday, was greeted by Ambassador Bridget Brink and got on a motorbike for the drive to the Mariinsky Palace. Even while he was on the ground in Ukraine, flights carrying military equipment and other goods continued to reach Rzeszow from Western cities.
Meanwhile, in Kyiv, many main streets and central blocks are closed without explanation. People began sharing videos of long-haul cars speeding down restricted-access roads — the first clue that Biden had arrived.
Biden traveled with a smaller retinue than usual: Sullivan, deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon and Oval Office operations director Annie Tomasini. He was joined by a Secret Service detail, a military aide carrying a “nuclear football”, a small medical team and an official White House photographer.
Only two reporters on board instead of the usual complement of 13. Electronic devices were turned off and turned on to the White House during the trip to Ukraine. Several journalists based in Ukraine were summoned to a downtown hotel on Monday morning to join them, not being informed that Biden was visiting until shortly before his arrival.
Even with Western surface-to-air missile systems supporting Ukraine’s defenses, it is rare for US leaders to travel to conflict zones where the US or its allies cannot control airspace.
The U.S. military is not in Ukraine except for a small detachment of Marines guarding the embassy in Kyiv, making Biden’s visit more complicated than previous U.S. leaders’ visits to war zones.
“We have told Russia that President Biden will be traveling to Kyiv,” Sullivan told reporters. “We did it a few hours before departure for the purpose of deconfliction.” He declined to specify the exact message or to whom it was sent, but said his aim was to avoid any miscalculations that could bring the two nuclear-armed nations into direct conflict.
While Biden was in Kyiv, US surveillance aircraft, including E-3 Sentry airborne radar and RC-135W Rivet Joint electronic aircraft, kept Kyiv out of Polish airspace.
The sealing of Kyiv’s normally congested streets brought an eerie calm to the center of the capital. It was so quiet that crows could be heard cawing as Biden and Zelenskyy walked from the motorcade to St. Michael’s Cathedral—the golden dome against the blue sky was the outer wall of the cathedral itself.
“Come on in and take a look,” Biden said, wearing his trademark aviator sunglasses to the spotlight. The president disappeared inside while heavily armed soldiers stood guard outside.
The cathedral bells rang at 11:30 a.m., followed by an air raid alarm at 11:34 a.m., before the men reappeared. The first sirens were howls far up through the city, followed seconds later by the alarm from the cell phone app crying from people’s pockets.
The alarm was sounded by “Star Wars” actor Mark Hamill, and the voice of Luke Skywalker urged people to take cover, warning: “Don’t be reckless. Overconfidence is your weakness.”
The two leaders walked quickly without any signs of worry through the cathedral’s front gate to the square in front, where a wrecked Russian tank and other armored vehicles were stationed as reminders of the war.
When the square is not blocked, as during the leaders’ visit, people come to see the vehicles, many of them taking selfies.
Leon Bennett via Getty Images
Biden appeared to ignore the hulks as he and Zelenskyy followed an honor guard carrying two wreaths to a memorial wall to honor Ukrainian soldiers who have died since 2014, the year Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and Russian-backed fighting erupted in eastern Ukraine.
At that time, the first pictures of Biden in the capital appeared on Ukrainian social media and the secret visit became global news.
“He is like an example of a president who is not afraid to appear in Ukraine and support us,” said Kyiv resident Myroslava Renova, 23, after Biden’s visit became known.
Biden headed to the US Embassy for a brief stopover before departing the country by train back to Poland in a wood-paneled train car fitted with curtains, dining tables and leather sofas.
The clear news, also voiced by Hamill, sounded at 1:07 a.m., as the Biden train pulled out of the station.
“The air signature is over,” Hamill said. “May the force be with you.”
Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci reports from Biden’s plane and in Kyiv. Miller reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington and Nicolae Dumitrache in Kyiv contributed.