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US President Joe Biden swept unannounced into Ukraine on Monday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a defiant display of Western solidarity with a country still fighting what he called “a brutal and unjust war” days before the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden declared after meeting Zelenskyy at Mariinsky Palace.
Jabbing his finger for emphasis on his podium, against a backdrop of three flags from each country, he continued, “And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you,” reports AP.
The US president spent more than five hours in the Ukrainian capital, consulting with Zelenskyy on next steps, honouring the country’s fallen soldiers and seeing US embassy staff in the besieged country.
Altogether he was on Ukrainian territory for about 23 hours, traveling by train from and back to Poland.
The visit came at a crucial moment: Biden is trying to keep allies unified in their support for Ukraine as the war is expected to intensify with spring offensives. Zelenskyy is pressing allies to speed up delivery of promised weapon systems and calling on the West to provide fighter jets — something that Biden has declined to do.
Biden got a taste of the terror that Ukrainians have lived with for close to a year when air raids sirens howled just as he and Zelenskyy wrapped up a visit to the gold-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
