Very significant
moment on the world stage.
President Biden met
with Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky
during this unannounced trip.
It comes just days
before the one year
mark of Russia's
brutal invasion of Ukraine.
This moment is highly significant.
This morning, Biden
sending a strong message of support
to Ukrainians as air raid
sirens wailed across Kiev, underscoring
the very real risk involved in this trip.
Both leaders spoke a moment ago
about the weight of this historic moment
President Biden,
that is so important to signal for us
and all we are all the weeks
or months for confirmation.
It's good to be back in Kiev.
I was telling you, the president
one of your staff members
on the flight from Washington
to Poland
to ask me how many times I've been
to Kyiv.
This is my eighth trip.
And much has changed,
much of it back in Beijing,
but also
Ukrainian people stepped up in a way that
few people ever have in their own defense
and
have apparently
also embraced the notion of democracy
no longer and discussions about
whether or not a certain privileged
people have control
We have seen in coverage
from all fronts this morning.
Phil Mattingly is here with me in Warsaw.
Clarissa Ward is standing by
on the ground in Kiev.
Fred Pleitgen is in Moscow and Kylie
Atwood is at the State Department.
Of course, this is a historic visit
by President Biden
is actually his eighth visit to Ukraine.
His first, though, since Russia invaded.
It's a visit
that he has said
he has wanted to make since
11 months ago.
But now, of course,
President Biden has finally made it
under a shroud of secrecy.
Clarissa Ward knows that well.
She was watching this entire visit happen
before it could actually be reported.
Clarissa,
the President Biden
was there on the ground in Kiev.
What could you see from your vantage,
from your vantage
So, Caitlin, we're now
here in the square
where President Biden was.
He was inside St Michael's Church
just behind me.
And you could hear those air raid
sirens start wailing.
There was a moment
where everybody was wondering
whether he was actually
going to come out of the church.
He and President
Zelensky came out of the church.
They met up with two soldiers
who were carrying wreaths,
and then they proceeded
to kind of march over to this area
where you can see several wreaths.
You can also see a lot
of television cameras.
Of course,
this is
a huge news story here in Ukraine.
And you can see behind me
just there next to that reporter,
this is the US wreath
that was laid as President Zelensky
and President Biden looked on.
The two leaders
then embraced the air raid.
Sirens finally stopped
wailing and president by
then got into his motorcade.
And I should say it was
an extraordinarily huge motorcade.
This entire
area was completely blocked off
to traffic. The streets were empty.
Our live shot
position is up on the balcony
of the hotel behind me.
And we had multiple visits from soldiers
who told us under no circumstances
were we to go out on the balcony.
At one stage,
they came up
even to tell us
to stand back further from the window.
So there was a lot of security
that went into this.
This is a trip
that many people have been
waiting a long time for.
And as you heard from President Zelensky
talking about how meaningful
this was, Caitlin,
what a strong signal of support.
And that is something
we're hearing reflected again and again
talking to ordinary Ukrainians.
We needed this right now
and we greatly appreciate it.
Yeah.
And there's
actual support
that they are sending as well.
Of course,
it was a remarkable moment, though.
Was this President
Biden and president
as long as they were walking into that
the church I believe that's behind you.
Air raid sirens were actually going off
in Kiev as President
Biden was on the ground right
And it's interesting because, you know,
the expectation had been that
with the president here,
it might be a quiet day.
The Russians
almost certainly already knew
he was here.
They'd be unlikely to do something like,
you know,
extraordinary,
like launching a missile attack
on this city
while the president was here.
But when we heard those air raid sirens,
the first thing you want to find out
is what type of threat has been reported.
In this case,
it was MiG activity over Belarus.
That, again,
is something that we have on
an almost daily basis
but it does take on
pretty loaded
significance
when you have the president
of the United States
in a church in the center of town
still, Miles, away from the next border,
the next border being Poland,
where we presume
obviously he is on his way to now.
So it was a definitely a tense moment
although you didn't see
that necessarily reflected on the ground.
I will say that when we were watching
the movements of people
who were accompanying
President Biden and President Zelensky,
we're very fast.
A lot of running.
This whole part of the puzzle
only took 10 minutes.
It was 5 minutes in the church
the air race started
wailing, 5 minutes
here on the ground, laying the wreath.
And then very quickly,
President Biden was gone again.
Yeah.
And just
a very small contingent with him.
Typically,
he travels with so many staffers
with him, Clarissa.
But also Phil
Mattingly is live here in Warsaw.
Where President Biden
is headed after this.
It was actually what was supposed
to be
the first stop on his schedule, Phil,
but of course, the White House
had this secret trip
that they had been planning.
You know,
we had not seen President Biden
since he was out in Washington
on Saturday night.
And then he reappeared in Kiev
at about 8:00 local this morning.
What more do you know
about the planning cell
that went into
this secret visit of President Biden's
look?
Then there are a lot of details
that are still not yet public
by design, for security reasons.
But we do know that top Biden advisers
have been talking
for several months
about how to best symbolize this moment.
They really were looking at the one year
anniversary of the one year
commemoration,
I guess,
of the Russian invasion
and wanted to ensure
that they had maximum impact
in terms of the president's
efforts up to this point,
not just from the U.S.
support size side,
but the durability
of the international coalition
they put together in part
because they knew that
there was no clear endgame coming
any time soon.
That was why they saw this
as such a significant moment.
Now, in terms of the trip itself.
As you noted, the last time we saw
the president was on Saturday night.
He was out to dinner with the first lady.
We did not see him again
until the video that you guys
have been showing.
What happened in between
besides the White House
putting out a public schedule
that did not have this trip on it
whatsoever, was the actual trip
going underway at 4 a.m.
around 4:15 a.m.
on Sunday, Air Force One departed
Andrews Air Force Base.
There was no notice.
Reporters that were on the trip
had to give their devices
to staff before they departed.
The next time
reporters were able to talk,
the pool was able to give
a timeline was 8 a.m.
was when they arrived in this area.
By eight 30
he was at the palace to meet
with President Zelensky,
the first lady as well.
He was joined, as you noted,
by just a small contingent of staffers.
National Security
Adviser Jake Sullivan,
Deputy Chief of Staff
Jen O'Malley, Dillon
Ambassador Bridget Brandt,
and the deputy ambassador as well
for their meetings.
And again, it's important to note
this wasn't
just a symbolic photo,
a moment for pictures and cameras.
They also did have a bilateral sit down
between the two presidents
and their top advisers
to discuss
kind of the current state of play.
Also presents Walensky
saying they were discussing
a defense assistance
of which the president
and President
Zelensky and his team
continue to ask for more
and faster as U.S.
officials are quite aware
of at this point in time.
But I think more importantly, as you look
and Kaitlan,
you know this as well as anybody
what the president said
about the importance of this,
showing that there is no doubt
that there should be no doubt
about the U.S.
support,
about the durability of that support
and about the support
of the Western Alliance
that has been there since day one,
I think was so critical.
And then one last thing I would say is,
you know,
the president
referencing the phone call
he had with President
Hilinski on the night of the invasion,
a moment where even top administration
officials, top Biden advisers
weren't sure the president's Lewinsky
would be president that much longer.
They weren't
sure he would be standing
that much longer.
Now, 361 days later,
not only is President Zelinsky
still there,
not only is he still standing,
the President Biden was
standing in Kiev with her.