How President Joe Biden's Surprise Visit to Ukraine was Kept Secret

VIVA – United States President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Monday, ahead of a scheduled trip to Poland four days before the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Previously, it was known that President Biden was having a quiet weekend at the White House, joining his wife Jill Biden for dinner at a restaurant on a rare outing in Washington on Saturday.

But behind the scenes, officials at the White House and other agencies were planning intensively for Biden to make an unannounced trip to Kyiv to show solidarity with Ukraine days before the first anniversary of Russia's invasion.

According to the White House, after months of planning, Biden decided on Friday to make the trip into a reality. Officials at the US presidential office said Biden was taken to Andrews Joint Air Force Base outside Washington and flew out Sunday at 4:15 p.m. local time (0915 GMT) on a US Air Force jet, accompanied by several people close to him, just one reporter and a photographer instead of his usual media pool.

The president flew overnight to the United States' Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The plane was refueled and he flew on to Rzeszow in southeastern Poland. After a one-hour drive, he arrived in Przemysl, a city along the Poland-Ukraine border.

Biden then boarded a train and traveled 10 hours to Kyiv. By then it was Sunday night, and Biden's train traveled in the dark with a heavy security presence on board.

The train came to a stop at the Kyiv-Pasazhyrsky station in the Ukrainian capital at roughly 8 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) on Monday. The area around the platform had been cleared and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, awaited Biden and his staff.

"It's good to be back in Kyiv," Biden said after stepping off the train.

Furthermore, the United States National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, who accompanied the president, revealed that US officials did not inform Russia that Biden would be visiting Kyiv, “We only notified (Russia) a few hours before (Biden's) departure to avoid conflict," he told reporters during a telephone press briefing to outline the process of the visit.

Sullivan said the trip required security, operational and logistical efforts from professionals across agencies in the US government to make the risky move manageable. Kyiv is under constant threat of Russian missile and drone attacks.

After visiting Kyiv, Biden boarded a train to Przemysl in Poland. From there, he was taken directly to Warsaw.