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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/20/this-is-a-part-of-history-kyiv-citizens-delighted-by-joe-biden-surprise-visit>
"After a week of freezing temperatures, Kyiv woke on Monday morning to a
perfect blue sky. Spring had arrived. And so had someone else. The centre of
the Ukrainian capital with its cobbled streets and ethereal gold-domed churches
was mysteriously closed off. The main Zhytomyr Avenue – the route in from the
west of the country – was shut too. Even the trains were late.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion a year ago, numerous foreign leaders have
come to Kyiv to meet Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. But Monday’s
security measures were unprecedented. As videos circulated of a vast cavalcade
of vehicles speeding through the centre of the city the rumours reached fever
pitch. Could they be true? Sometime after breakfast it turned out they were –
Joe Biden was in town, dropping by for an extraordinary visit.
It wasn’t immediately clear how the US president had reached Kyiv, arriving at
8am local time. It is a city without a functioning airport. A seasoned
traveller on Amtrak, he appears to have got there by train. Since last autumn
Russian warplanes have fired ballistic missiles at the capital, in an attempt
to destroy its infrastructure and to immiserate its citizens. Nobody quite
knows where the next bomb will fall, or when.
A decision to go to Ukraine was made only on Friday, after a huddle of top
officials in the Oval Office, the White House said. The visit was meticulously
planned. The Biden administration informed Moscow about the trip a few hours
after the president took off early on Sunday from Andrews air force base in
Maryland. The Russians were briefed for “deconfliction reasons”, officials in
Washington said.
Whatever the long route to Kyiv, the images on Monday morning told their own
remarkable story. Biden and Zelenskiy emerged together from St Michael’s
Cathedral, one of an ensemble of religious buildings in the ancient heart of
the city. In front of them was St Sophia, a second great cathedral built in the
11th century, when Moscow was just bog and forest.
The pair went on a brief walkabout. As they passed a mural of St Michael and
his angels, an air raid siren rang out. For Kyivans this was business as usual.
But it underscored the huge symbolic importance of Biden’s visit, ahead of the
anniversary on Friday of Russia’s bloody invasion. And it said something too,
perhaps, about the 80-year-old president’s steely and daring resolve."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
