How did Biden make a secret trip to Ukraine?

KYIV, Ukraine — President Joe Biden’s motorcade slipped out of the White House round 3:30 a.m. Sunday. No huge, flashy Air Force One for this trip -– the president vanished into the darkness on an Air Force C-32, a modified Boeing 757 usually used for home journeys to smaller airports.

The subsequent time he turned up — 20 hours later — it was in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine.

Biden’s surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday was the primary time in fashionable historical past that a U.S. chief visited a warzone exterior the aegis of the U.S. navy — a feat the White House stated carried some threat though Moscow was given a heads-up.

Over the subsequent 5 hours, the president made a number of stops round city — ferried about in a black SUV quite than the presidential limousine — with none announcement to the Ukrainian public that he was there. But all that exercise attracted sufficient consideration that phrase of his presence leaked out effectively earlier than he might get again to Poland, which was the unique plan. Aides on the White House have been shocked the secret held so long as it did.

But Russia knew what the Ukrainian public did not. U.S. officers had given Moscow discover of Biden’s trip.

The president had been itching since final yr to be a part of the parade of different Western officers who’ve visited Kyiv to pledge help standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy within the capital.

Biden’s planned trip to Warsaw, Poland, and the Presidents’ Day vacation supplied an apparent opening to tack on a cease in Kyiv. A small group of senior officers on the White House and throughout U.S. nationwide safety businesses set about working in secret for months to make it occur, nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan stated on Monday. Biden solely gave the ultimate sign-off on Friday.

Sullivan stated the trip “required a security, operational, and logistical effort from professionals across the U.S. government to take what was an inherently risky undertaking and make it a manageable risk.”

Once Biden was secreted aboard the Air Force jet, the decision signal “SAM060,” for Special Air Mission, was used for the aircraft as an alternative of the same old “Air Force One.” It took off from Joint Base Andrews at 4:15 a.m. Eastern time.

After a refueling cease in Germany, Biden’s plane switched off its transponder for the roughly hour-long flight to Rzeszow, Poland, the airport that has served because the gateway for billions of {dollars} in Western arms and VIP guests into Ukraine.

He arrived in Kyiv at 8 a.m. Monday and was greeted by Ambassador Bridget Brink and entered his motorcade for the drive to Mariinsky Palace. Even whereas he was on the bottom in Ukraine, flights transporting navy gear and different items have been persevering with unabated to Rzeszow from Western cities.

Meanwhile, in Kyiv, many major streets and central blocks have been cordoned off with out rationalization. People began sharing movies of lengthy motorcades of vehicles rushing alongside streets the place entry was restricted — the primary clues that Biden had arrived.

Biden traveled with a far smaller than common retinue: Sullivan, deputy chief of workers Jen O’Malley Dillon and the director of Oval Office operations, Annie Tomasini. They have been joined by his Secret Service element, the navy aide carrying the so-called “nuclear football,” a small medical crew and the official White House photographer.

Only two journalists have been on board as an alternative of the same old complement of 13. Their digital units have been powered off and turned over to the White House at some point of the trip into Ukraine. A small variety of journalists primarily based in Ukraine have been summoned to a downtown lodge on Monday morning to be a part of them, not knowledgeable that Biden was visiting till shortly earlier than his arrival.

Even with Western surface-to-air missile methods bolstering Ukraine’s defenses, it was uncommon for a U.S. chief to journey to a battle zone the place the U.S. or its allies did not have management over the airspace.

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

“We did notify the Russians that President Biden will be traveling to Kyiv,” Sullivan instructed reporters. “We did so some hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes.” He declined to specify the precise message or to whom it was delivered however stated the heads-up was to keep away from any miscalculation that might convey the 2 nuclear-armed nations into direct battle.

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

The sealing off of Kyiv roads which are often buzzing with visitors introduced an eerie calm to the middle of the capital. It was so quiet that crows may very well be heard cawing as Biden and Zelenskyy walked from their motorcade to the gold-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral below skies as blue because the outer partitions of the cathedral itself.

“Let’s walk in and take a look,” Biden stated, carrying his trademark aviator sun shades in opposition to the glare. The presidents disappeared inside as closely armed troopers stood guard exterior.

Cathedral bells chirped on the stroke of 11:30 a.m. adopted shortly by air raid alarms, at 11:34 a.m., simply earlier than the boys reemerged. The sirens have been first a distant howl rising over the town, adopted seconds later by alarms from cell phone apps wailing from folks’s pockets.

Those alarms are voiced by “Star Wars” actor Mark Hamill, and his Luke Skywalker voice urged folks to take cowl, warning: “Don’t be careless. Your overconfidence is your weakness.”

The two leaders walked at a measured tempo with no outward indicators of concern by means of the cathedral’s arched entrance gate onto the sq. in entrance, the place the rusting hulks of destroyed Russian tanks and different armored automobiles have been stationed as grim reminders of the war.

When the sq. isn’t blocked off, because it was in the course of the leaders’ go to, folks come to have a look at the automobiles, many taking selfies.

Biden appeared to pay the hulks no thoughts as he and Zelenskyy adopted behind honor guards carrying two wreaths to the wall of remembrance honoring Ukrainian troopers killed since 2014, the yr Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and Russian-backed combating erupted in jap Ukraine.

It was solely then that the primary photographs of Biden within the capital popped up on Ukrainian social media and the secret go to grew to become world news.

The all-clear discover, additionally voiced by Hamill, sounded at 1:07 p.m., lengthy after Biden had headed to the U.S. Embassy for a transient cease earlier than departing the nation.

“The air alert is over,” Hamill said. “May the force be with you.”

Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci reported from aboard Biden’s plane and in Kyiv. Miller reported from Washington. Associated Press author Aamer Madhani contributed from Washington.