Joe Biden visiting Ukraine amid war a step 'unprecedented in modern times': Jake Sullivan

Joe Biden became the first US President to visit "the capital of a country at war where the United States military does not control the critical infrastructure," said US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan adding “We did notify the Russians that President Biden will be traveling to Kyiv,” calling Biden's trip to Kyiv amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war "unprecedented in modern times."

The White House made the statement just prior to Biden's departure from Washington "for deconfliction purposes" in an effort to prevent any blunder that may pit the two nuclear-armed states against one another. This journey differs from prior presidential trips to Afghanistan and Iraq, according to White House officials. There was a sizable US military presence in those nations, but Ukraine has neither one nor does it have much of a diplomatic one.

“That required a security operational logistical effort from professionals across the US government to take what was an inherently risky undertaking and make it a manageable level of risk,” Sullivan said.

As Biden was in Ukraine, American surveillance aircraft, such as an electronic RC-135W Rivet Joint and an airborne radar E-3 Sentry, were monitoring Kyiv from Polish airspace. Earlier, there were rumours that the US President would be visiting Kyiv on the morning of February 20 and there would be significant traffic constraints. The White House and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy both verified that Biden was in Kyiv at noon.

Trip a complete secret: White House

Biden took a train from the Polish border to Kyiv, and the White House remained completely quiet about his journey until the very end. While in Kyiv, Biden unveiled a new package of $500 million in US military aid as well as new sanctions on Russia for its aggression.

Jake Sullivan, spoke out about what Biden sought to accomplish through the trip. “Coming over, the president was very focused on making sure that he made the most of his time on the ground, which he knew was going to be limited,” Sullivan told reporters.

"They spent time talking about the coming months in terms of the battlefield, what Ukraine needs, the capabilities to be able to succeed on the battlefield. They talked about Ukraine’s needs in terms of energy, infrastructure, economic support, humanitarian needs, and they also talked about the political side of this, including the upcoming UN General Assembly session on Ukraine, as well as Ukraine’s peace formula and Ukraine’s efforts to rally international support for a just and sustainable and durable peace built on the principles of the UN Charter, chief among them sovereignty and territorial integrity," added Sullivan. 

Russia's invasion of Ukraine to mark one year

"We did so some hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes, and because of the sensitive nature of those communications I won’t get into how they responded or what the precise nature of our message was, but I can confirm that we provided that notice," said Jake Sullivan. 

"But of course, there was still risk and is still risk in an endeavour like this, and President Biden felt that it was important to make this trip because of the critical juncture that we find ourselves at as we approach the one year anniversary of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine," he added. 

Sullivan was evasive when asked if Biden and Zelenskyy had discussed any specific weaponry systems, specifically F16 fighter jets, that may be sent to Ukraine. He said, "I think the two presidents both laid out their perspectives on a number of different capabilities that have been thrown around in the press, both recently and over the course of several months, and I will leave it at that."