It is not the first time that a US president visits another country in the midst of an armed conflict. In fact, both Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush They visited Iraq and Afghanistan at the time when they were at war.
(See also: The keys to Joe Biden’s surprise visit to Volodímir Zelenski in Ukraine)
However, the brief journey of Joe Biden this Monday to Ukraine will go down in history as one of the most daring and risky maneuvers on record.
(In context: Ukraine: chronicle of an announced war that is far from seeing an end)
Unlike their predecessors, who landed in nations where Washington already had a strong military presence on the ground and controlled much of the territory, the Democratic leader did so in a country without any of those guarantees and in a capital, kyivwhere anti-aircraft alarms sound daily to warn of the barrage of missiles that keep shooting Russia.
Today, President Biden is in Kyiv to reaffirm America’s unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.
The United States of America will stand with the Ukrainian people for as long as it takes. pic.twitter.com/1IJuCcsVJd
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 20, 2023
That he did so, moreover, a few days after the first anniversary of the start of the conflict with who is also his main geostrategic rival it only adds more elements to the audacious maneuver.
“There are no precedents in modern times because here the president decided to visit the capital of a country at war where the United States does not control critical infrastructure.said the National Security Adviser. Jake Sullivan when explaining the moment.
According to various sources, the trip of Biden to Ukraine it took months to plan and was known until the last moment by only a handful of people.
Although it was known that the president would visit Poland this week in order to show their support on the eve of the anniversary, the detour to kyiv took the whole world by surprise. Specially to Moscow that he was only informed minutes before his arrival to avoid a dangerous misunderstanding.
Biden, these same sources say, arrived first in this country and from there he traveled by train for more than 10 hours until he reached Kiev.
The same route other US diplomats have used, including former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron when they visited the Ukrainian capital.
If Putin can appropriate
to force the territory of another country and do nothing about it, then we are giving the green light to other dictators
Once in kyiv, the US president walked a few streets with the president Volodymyr Zelensky, to whom he promised to continue supporting him for the “time that is necessary” and announced additional resources for US $ 500 million adding to more than $50 billion the United States has already donated since the conflict began and new economic sanctions against Moscow.
“When Putin launched his invasion almost a year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he could wear us down. But he was completely wrong, ”the president said in a statement released by the White House a few moments after his arrival.
The risk in any case was immense. Any “errors” in the calculationssuch as an unintentional attack on the convoy or a missile in the wrong place, would probably have unleashed, according to experts, the third World war.
Even so, there are several reasons behind the daring move of the US president.
On one side is the message to the president Vladimir Putin that the United States or at least his administration, is also betting on the long term in Ukraine and is not going to back down.
Although the visit is largely symbolic, timing it to coincide with the anniversary year and shortly before the expected Russian offensive in the spring is a clear message to Moscow. It means that your adventure in Ukraine it will continue to be costly, says Emily Harding, a Russia expert at the Center for International Strategic Studies.
“In this conflict, more than in others, the chances of a Ukrainian victory are tied to the commitment of the West. Moscow is betting that time is on its side and assumes that sooner or later Nato will falter. But, just as she underestimated the will of the Alliance at the beginning of the war, she continues to bet on their will to stay. Biden’s journey in this sense is strategic as he seeks to strengthen and tie up the commitment of allies, ”says Harding.
And this is a key moment, since the enormous economic and military resources that the war is demanding have begun to have an impact not only in the United States but also in other European capitals.
A recent Associated Press poll says support for the conflict has dropped from 60 percent in May of last year to 49 percent last month.
Likewise, Ukraine has become the lynchpin of the president’s foreign policy. With which he seeks not only to revitalize the political, economic and military alliance with Europe but also to defend the democratic model that emerged from the Second World War.
For the White House, and Sullivan insisted on this, the conflict in Ukraine is not just about defending a former Soviet republic, but the fate of modern democracy.
“If Putin can forcibly take over the territory of another country and we do nothing about it, then we are giving other dictators and autocrats the green light to do the same later,” Biden said recently.
A coded message given the possibility that China opts for the same path to resolve its dispute with Taiwan, to give an example.
The problem for Biden -and the advantage that Putin has- is that he is only guaranteed two more years in the White House and in his Congress a new group of Republicans, of a nationalist nature, have come to power, who care little about what pass to the other side of the planet.
SERGIO GOMEZ MASERI
EL TIEMPO correspondent
Washington
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