Veronika Prokhorenko16:33, 20.02.23

The official explained why Biden’s visit to Kyiv today is fundamentally different from his trips to other warring countries. In particular, Afghanistan and Iraq.

National Security Adviser to the President of the United States Jake Sullivan told how the White House was preparing for today’s arrival of the American leader in Kyiv.

Recall that this morning Joe Biden was marked by his unexpected arrival in the Ukrainian capital, although it was previously planned that he would arrive in Poland the other day. The White House emphasized that he was not going to meet with Zelensky . As Sullivan assessed, Biden’s visit to Kiev is “an unprecedented case”, because at the moment the US Armed Forces do not control a single military facility in Ukraine, writes The Guardian . 

According to him, this is the main difference between Biden’s visits to Afghanistan, Iraq and other warring countries. Sullivan said that due to the lack of US forces in Ukraine, the Biden administration had to more carefully prepare for his visit to Kyiv. 

“It required a swift security effort by US government professionals to bring an inherently risky undertaking down to a manageable level of risk,” he said.

Sullivan said Biden understood the danger of his visit to Kyiv, but decided to come anyway at a “critical moment” for Ukraine – the anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Russian troops on February 24. 

(C)UNIAN 2023