KYIV, Ukraine — President Joe Biden paid an unannounced go to to Ukraine on Monday to fulfill with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a defiant show of Western solidarity with a rustic nonetheless combating what he known as “a brutal and unjust warfare” days earlier than the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

“One 12 months later, Kyiv stands,” Biden declared after assembly Zelenskyy at Mariinsky Palace. Jamming his finger for emphasis on his podium, towards a backdrop of three flags from every nation, he continued: “And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The People stand with you, and the world stands with you.”

Biden spent greater than 5 hours within the Ukrainian capital, consulting with Zelenskyy on subsequent steps, honoring the nation’s fallen troopers and seeing U.S. embassy employees within the besieged nation.

The go to comes at a vital second: Biden is attempting to maintain allies unified of their help for Ukraine because the warfare is anticipated to accentuate with spring offensives. Zelenskyy is urgent allies to hurry up supply of promised weapon programs and calling on the West to offer fighter jets — one thing that Biden has declined to do.

The U.S. president received a style of the phobia that Ukrainians have lived with for near a 12 months when air raids sirens howled simply as he and Zelenskyy wrapped up a go to to the gold-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral.

Wanting solemn, they continued unperturbed as they laid two wreaths and held a second of silence on the Wall of Remembrance honoring Ukrainian troopers killed since 2014, the 12 months Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and Russian-backed combating erupted in japanese Ukraine.

The White Home wouldn’t go into specifics, however nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan mentioned that it notified Moscow of Biden’s go to to Kyiv shortly earlier than his departure from Washington “for deconfliction functions” in an effort to keep away from any miscalculation that might carry the 2 nuclear-armed nations into direct battle.

In Kyiv, Biden introduced an extra half-billion {dollars} in U.S. help — on prime of the greater than $50 billion already offered — for shells for howitzers, anti-tank missiles, air surveillance radars and different help however no new superior weaponry.

Ukraine has additionally been pushing for battlefield programs that may enable its forces to strike Russian targets which were moved again from frontline areas, out of the vary of HIMARS missiles which have already been delivered. Zelenskyy mentioned he and Biden spoke about “long-range weapons and the weapons that will nonetheless be equipped to Ukraine despite the fact that it wasn’t equipped earlier than.” However he didn’t element any new commitments.

“Our negotiations had been very fruitful,” Zelenskyy added. Sullivan wouldn’t element any potential new capabilities for Ukraine, however mentioned there was a ”good dialogue” of the topic.

Biden’s mission along with his go to to Kyiv, which comes earlier than a scheduled journey to Warsaw, Poland, is to underscore that the USA is ready to stay with Ukraine “so long as it takes” to repel Russian forces at the same time as public opinion polling means that U.S. and allied help for offering weaponry and direct financial help has began to melt. For Zelenskyy, the symbolism of getting the U.S. president stand aspect by aspect with him on Ukrainian land because the anniversary nears is not any small factor as he prods allies to offer extra superior weaponry and step up supply.

“I believed it was important that there not be any doubt, none in anyway, about U.S. help for Ukraine within the warfare,” Biden mentioned.

Biden’s go to was a brazen rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had hoped his army would swiftly overrun Kyiv inside days. Biden, a Democrat, recalled talking with Zelenskyy on the evening of the invasion, saying, “That darkish evening one 12 months in the past, the world was actually on the time bracing for the autumn of Kyiv. Even perhaps the top of Ukraine.”

A 12 months later, the Ukrainian capital stays firmly in Ukrainian management. Though a semblance of normalcy has returned to the town, common air raid sirens and frequent missile and killer-drone assaults towards army and civilian infrastructure throughout the nation are a near-constant reminder that the warfare continues to be raging. The bloodiest combating is, for the second, concentrated within the nation’s east, notably across the metropolis of Bakhmut, the place Russian offensives are underway.

At the least six civilians have been killed and 17 extra have been wounded in Ukraine over the previous 24 hours, Ukraine’s presidential workplace reported. Within the japanese Donetsk area, the Russian military was utilizing aviation to strike cities on the entrance line. A complete of 15 cities and villages have been shelled over the previous 24 hours, in keeping with the area’s Ukrainian Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko. Within the northeastern Kharkiv area, cities close to the border with Russia got here below hearth. A missile strike hit Kupiansk, damaging a hospital, a plant and residential buildings.

“The price that Ukraine has needed to bear has been terribly excessive,” Biden mentioned. “And the sacrifices have been far too nice.” However “Putin’s warfare of conquest is failing.”

“He’s relying on us not sticking collectively,” Biden mentioned. “He thought he may outlast us. I don’t suppose he’s considering that proper now. God is aware of what he’s considering, however I don’t suppose he’s considering that. However he’s simply been plain improper. Plain improper.”

The journey gave Biden a chance to get a firsthand have a look at the devastation the Russian invasion has brought about on Ukraine. 1000’s of Ukrainian troops and civilians have been killed, tens of millions of refugees have fled the warfare, and Ukraine has suffered tens of billions of {dollars} of infrastructure injury.

Biden, carrying a blue go well with and at instances his signature aviator sun shades, advised Zelenskyy the U.S. will stand with him “for so long as it takes.” Zelenskyy responded in English: “We’ll do it.”

The Ukrainian chief, carrying a black sweatshirt, as has change into his wartime behavior, mentioned by an interpreter that Biden’s go to “brings us nearer to the victory,” this 12 months, he hoped. He expressed gratitude to People and “all those that cherish freedom.”

It was uncommon for a U.S. president to journey to a battle zone the place the U.S. or its allies didn’t have management over the airspace.

The U.S. army doesn’t have a presence in Ukraine apart from a small detachment of Marines guarding the embassy in Kyiv, making Biden’s go to extra sophisticated than different latest visits by prior U.S. leaders to warfare zones.

Whereas Biden was in Ukraine, U.S. surveillance planes, together with E-3 Sentry airborne radar and an digital RC-135W Rivet Joint plane, had been conserving watch over Kyiv from Polish airspace.

Hypothesis has been constructing for weeks that Biden would go to Ukraine across the Feb. 24 anniversary of the Russian invasion. However the White Home repeatedly had mentioned that no presidential journey to Ukraine was deliberate, even after the Poland go to was introduced.

Since early morning on Monday many primary streets and central blocks in Kyiv had been cordoned off with none official clarification. Later individuals began sharing movies of lengthy motorcades of vehicles driving alongside the streets the place the entry was restricted.

On the White Home, planning for Biden’s go to to Kyiv was tightly held — with a comparatively small group of aides briefed on the plans — due to safety considerations. Sullivan mentioned Biden gave last approval for the journey, which had been within the works for months, on Friday throughout an Oval Workplace assembly at which he was briefed on safety plans for the go to.

The president traveled with an often small entourage, with just some senior aides and two journalists, to take care of secrecy.

Requested by a reporter on Friday if Biden would possibly embody stops past Poland, White Home Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby replied, “Proper now, the journey goes to be in Warsaw.” Moments later — and with out prompting — Kirby added, “I mentioned ‘proper now.’

Biden quietly departed from Joint Base Andrews close to Washington at 4:15 a.m. on Sunday, making a cease at Ramstein Air Base in Germany earlier than making his manner into Ukraine. He arrived in Kyiv at 8 a.m. on Monday. He departed after 1 p.m.

Till Monday, Biden’s failure to go to was making him one thing of a standout amongst Ukraine’s companions within the West, a few of whom have made frequent visits to the Ukrainian capital. White Home officers had beforehand cited safety considerations with conserving Biden from making the journey, and Sullivan mentioned Monday that the go to was solely undertaken as soon as officers believed that they had managed the chance to acceptable ranges.

In June, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz after which Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi traveled collectively by evening practice to Kyiv to fulfill with Zelenskyy. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Kyiv in November shortly after taking workplace.

That is Biden’s first go to to a warfare zone as president. His latest predecessors, Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, made shock visits to Afghanistan and Iraq throughout their presidencies to fulfill U.S. troops and people nations’ leaders.

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Madhani and Miller reported from Washington.

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Observe the AP’s protection of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.