government to take what was an inherently risky undertaking and make it a manageable level of risk.īut, of course, there was still risk and is still risk in an endeavor like this. Let me just start by reiterating something Kate said, which is that this was a historic visit, unprecedented in modern times, to have the President of the United States visit the capital of a country at war where the United States military does not control the critical infrastructure.Īnd that required a security, operational, and logistical effort from professionals across the U.S. And I hope I’m able to stay on the call for as long as I can, given access to cell service. So with that, I’m going to turn it over to Jake Sullivan for some additional thoughts. is committed to continuing to support Ukraine for as long as it takes. So it was bold, it was risky, and it should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that Joe Biden is a leader who takes commitment seriously, and the U.S. And he wanted to demonstrate the strength of his commitment to his strategy of holding the West together in a united front against Putin. He wanted to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with President Zelenskyy and remind the world, as we approach the one-year anniversary of the invasion, that Kyiv still stands and the United States will not be deterred from standing with Ukraine. It’s important to him to show up, even when it’s hard, and he directed his team to make it happen, no matter how challenging the logistics. obviously does not have a military presence on the ground in Ukraine, which made a visit from a sitting President all the more challenging.īut this was a risk that Joe Biden wanted to take. Unlike previous visits from Presidents to warzones, like Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. President to an active warzone like this is historic and unprecedented and, as I say, required a great deal of careful planning. It was logistically complicated and difficult, and it sends an incredibly powerful message that President Biden has faith in the Ukrainian people and is unwavering in his commitment to stand by them. So I just wanted to do a little table set at the top here, and then I’ll turn it over to Jake and Jon for some additional points.īut, you know, so this trip today was a bold and strong move on President Biden’s part in the face of extreme difficulty, the extreme difficulty of making this trip as President of the United States. With that, that I’ll turn it over to Kate. Our speakers today are White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer. The contents of the call are embargoed until the call ends. To kick things off, we just want to go over the ground rules really quickly. Thanks for joining our call on short notice.
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