Athena Papakosta

The United States will support Ukraine in its fight against Russia for as long as needed.

That was clear Biden’s message from Ukraine and the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, where he made an unannounced visit of a highly symbolic nature with utmost secrecy a few days before the anniversary of the Russian invasion of the country.

According to the New York Times, the American president traveled by train to Kiev after a 10-hour journey. He stayed in the Ukrainian capital for five hours and during his visit there, he spoke with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

As he pointed out: Vladimir Putin he made a huge mistake in believing that Russia would defeat Ukraine and its Western allies.

“A year later and Kiev is standing. Ukraine exists, democracy exists. Americans stand with you, the whole world is with you“, he characteristically said.

Biden’s visit to Kiev at the given time could by no means be considered a coincidence.

It comes as an integral part of the United States’ effort to keep the West united in its support for the Ukrainians in the face of Russia’s brutal spring offensive.

In this light, Joe Biden made sure on Ukrainian soil to announce, a few days before the anniversary of February 24, a new package of military aid with new deliveries of arms and ammunition worth 500 million dollars while, within the next few days, it is expected that the United States States to announce additional sanctions against elites and companies trying to bolster Russia’s war machine.

During his meeting with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, the two leaders visited a memorial dedicated to the soldiers who lost their lives nine years ago when Russia annexed Crimea and its forces seized parts of the eastern Donbass region.

Earlier, the American president got a taste of the ongoing war in the country he is visiting for the first time in a year. As the two men walked away from St. Michael’s Cathedral in central Kiev, air raid sirens sounded.

Moscow was in no hurry to comment on Biden’s visit to Kiev. Anyway, the Kremlin has long been repeating that Russia is at war with the West, not just Ukraine.

Analysts do not rule out the immediate answer coming from the mouth of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, during his annual speech to the Federal Assembly which is expected within the next few hours.

In this sermon of his the occupant of the Kremlin he will address the Russian nation with messages not limited, however, only to the interior of his country, but also to the West. In fact, there are not a few who comment that they expect the tone of the Russian president to be aggressive and cynical.

At the same time, the American president, Joe Biden, will be in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, bordering Ukraine, where he will deliver a speech that may also constitute a road map, illuminating the next steps of Kiev’s western allies for the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, China’s top diplomat is going to Moscow and is expected to meet Sergey Lavrov, while it is possible that he will also meet Putin himself.

As noted by foreign news networks, this meeting had not been announced either, and it also appears as a continuation of both the undeclared Sino-American war and, in particular, the strict warning Blinken’s message to Beijing against Moscow’s military reinforcement with weapons.