Biden walks around Kiev showing his superiority
2023.02.21 03:05
Biden walks around Kiev showing his superiority
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – In an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden walked around the city center, promising to support Ukraine for as long as necessary. The trip was timed to upstage the Kremlin ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Biden and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, both wearing his signature aviator sunglasses, walked side by side to a gold-domed cathedral on a bright winter morning punctuated by the sound of air raid sirens.
“When Russian President Vladimir Putin started his invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago, he thought the West was divided and Ukraine was weak. He believed that he could outlive us. However, he was totally wrong,” Biden stated.
“Ukraine has had to pay an extraordinarily high price. There have been far too many sacrifices. We are aware that the days, weeks, and years ahead will be difficult.
Burned-out Russian tanks stand outside the cathedral as a reminder of Moscow’s unsuccessful attack on the capital at the beginning of its invasion, which began on February 24. Its forces quickly reached the ramparts of Kyiv, but they were stopped by an unexpectedly strong resistance.
Since then, the war fought by Russia has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers from both sides, the destruction of cities, and the exodus of millions of refugees. While the West has pledged tens of billions of dollars in military assistance to Kyiv, Russia claims to have annexed nearly a fifth of Ukraine.
Zelenskiy stated, “The most important visit in the entire history of Ukraine-U.S. relations is this visit of the U.S. president to Ukraine, the first in 15 years.”
According to a White House pool report by a Wall Street Journal reporter, Biden traveled to Ukraine’s capital from Poland by overnight train, arriving at 8 a.m. on Monday after approximately 10 hours. He then traveled back to that location in the same manner, departing just after 1 p.m. (1100 GMT).
Biden arrived in Warsaw late on Monday. The following day, he is scheduled to meet with President Andrzej Duda of Poland and other leaders of nations on the eastern flank of NATO.
The State Department announced an additional $460 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine while Biden was in Kyiv. This aid included $450 million in artillery ammunition, anti-armor systems, and air defense radars, as well as $10 million for energy infrastructure.
Josep Borrell, the head of foreign policy for the European Union, said that the bloc would approve additional sanctions before the conflict’s anniversary, which Russia calls a “special military operation.”
According to officials in Washington and Moscow, Russia was informed before Biden left, presumably to prevent an attack on Kyiv while he was there.
The trip took place a day before Putin was scheduled to deliver a major speech on Tuesday. In it, he would outline the goals for the second year of what he now refers to as a “proxy war” against Washington’s military might and the NATO military alliance.
Tatiana Stanovaya, a Russian political analyst, stated, “Of course for the Kremlin this will be seen as further proof that the United States has bet on Russia’s strategic defeat in the war and that the war itself has turned irrevocably into a war between Russia and the West.”
Russia has sent thousands of conscripts into Ukraine for a winter offensive, but in recent weeks, it has only made a small amount of progress in assaults in frozen trenches along the eastern front. It is seen by Kyiv and the West as an effort to give Putin victories to celebrate a year after he started Europe’s largest war since World War II.
On Monday, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi was expected to meet with Moscow, signaling Moscow’s support. Despite signing a “no limits” friendship pact with Russia weeks prior to the invasion, China has maintained its neutrality in public regarding the conflict.
In recent days, Washington has stated that it is concerned Beijing may begin providing weapons to Moscow. The United States was “in no position to make demands of China,” according to Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Reuters was informed by a diplomatic source who spoke on the condition of anonymity that Wang Yi would discuss Chinese ideas for a political war settlement. Ukraine asserts that Russian forces must leave its territory for any diplomatic solution to work.
Two eastern provinces that make up the Donbas industrial region in Ukraine are under Russian control. It has sent off attacks at areas getting from Kreminna in the north down to Vuhledar in the south, getting its greatest additions around the mining city of Bakhmut.
Kyiv, which is getting a lot of Western weapons for a planned counteroffensive in the coming months, has been mostly playing defense on the battlefield, claiming to be killing a lot of Russian forces that are attacking.
Regional Ukrainian officials reported that Russian shelling on Monday resulted in the deaths of three civilians, two of whom were in the Kherson region and one in the Donetsk region.
Russia lost two elite brigades of thousands of marines, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defence, likely rendered “combat ineffective” by losses sustained in failed attempts to storm Vuhledar.
It said, “The Russian forces are likely under increasing political pressure as the anniversary of the invasion draws near,” and it predicted that Moscow might claim to have captured Bakhmut no matter what was going on in the real world. Tensions within the Russian leadership are likely to rise if Russia’s spring offensive is unsuccessful.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Putin whose Wagner private army has sent thousands of criminals recruited from prison into battle around Bakhmut, accused unidentified Russian officials of sabotaging his force by withholding weapons in a sign of such discord.
The ruins of Vuhledar were constantly shaken by explosions inside. A senior citizen emerged from the cellar, where she lives with her dog, and led a reporter from Reuters through the debris of her apartment above, where a shell had punctured the wall.
She claimed that a fridge had fallen on top of her and saved her when the room was struck. She was discovered by the daughter of a neighbor and hauled out.
The word “scary” is a stretch. “It’s scary,” she said.
