US President Joe Biden arrived in Kiev on the eve of the anniversary of the Russian invasion. The visit was not announced in advance.

U.S. President Joe Biden arrived on an unexpected visit to Kiev and met with President Zelensky.

"Your visit is an extremely important sign of support for all Ukrainians," the Ukrainian president said. Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Joe Biden visited the memorial to the soldiers who died during the nine years of this war.

The visit of the American president was not known in advance, moreover, the White House has repeatedly stated that it is unrealistic to organize it - it is not possible to ensure the security of the president in a warring country.

Biden was supposed to visit Poland on Feb. 20-22 and meet with its president, Andrzej Duda. The White House announced this visit in advance.

Since Monday morning, a number of important streets have been blocked in Kyiv, which is why the city stood in traffic jams. Later, motorcades were seen on the roads, and there were suggestions that the streets were blocked in connection with the visit of foreign guests to the Day of Remembrance of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred on February 20.

The parliamentary delegation of Israel really arrived in Kyiv - this was announced by the Ambassador of Ukraine to Israel Yevhen Korniychuk. Earlier, news agencies reported on the upcoming visit of Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni and the head of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva.

However, such security measures have never been used for visits of foreign guests (despite the fact that since the beginning of a major war, such visits, and there were many of them, are usually not announced in advance).

According to Rolling Stone magazine, citing a senior White House official, Biden was offered several plans for this trip. One called for a meeting between Biden and Zelensky at a secret location on the Polish-Ukrainian border. Another idea was to hold a meeting in Lviv, which has been subjected to Russian airstrikes several times since the beginning of the war, but remains a relatively safe place compared to the east of the country. However, Biden decided to go to Kiev.

According to the New York Times, Biden came to Kiev by train from Poland, as did other high-ranking American officials.

Source: BBC