Putin's allies say Biden's visit proves Zelensky is his 'servant'

Putin’s allies say Biden’s surprise visit to Ukraine proves Zelensky is his ‘servant’ and the Kyiv trip was the start of his 2024 campaign

Russian officials and state media talking heads said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky looked like President Joe Biden’s ‘servant’
They also said Biden’s surprise trip to Ukraine marked the start of his 2024 presidential campaign
Biden appeared alongside Zelensky four days before the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion

Russian officials and state media talking heads said President Joe Biden’s surprise trip to Kyiv Monday proved Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was his ‘servant’ and marked the start of his 2024 reelection campaign.

Biden left Washington in secret at 4:15 a.m. on Sunday, flying to Poland and then taking a 10-hour train ride so he could stand alongside Zelensky four days before the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion.

The secret trip also happened a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin is slated to give his state-of-the-nation address.

Russian state TV said the trip proved that Biden ‘runs things’ in Ukraine, with Vladimir Rogov, the Russian put in charge of Ukraine’s occupied Zaporizhzhia region, saying Zelensky ‘looked like a servant next to Biden,’ according to the Associated Press.

The Kremlin has justified the war, in part, by saying that Zelensky’s government is controlled by the West.

Allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured) said President Joe Biden’s surprise trip to Kyiv Monday proved Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was his ‘servant’ and marked the start of his 2024 reelection campaign

President Joe Biden boards Air Force One at Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport in Poland after his trip to Kyiv. One Russian official said Biden ‘started his election campaign in the most heroic surroundings in order to prove to everyone he can still “do it just like in the good old days’

Senior Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev suggested on Telegram that Biden, 80, was using Ukraine as a backdrop to stage the beginning of his 2024 presidential campaign.

‘Biden in Kyiv started his election campaign in the most heroic surroundings in order to prove to everyone he can still “do it just like in the good old days,”‘ Kosachev said, according to the AP. ‘Kyiv was left with no choice by to try and drive people to the senseless slaughter as part of Biden’s election campaign.’

Russian pundits also characterized Russia as being the more dignified party by giving the U.S. government security guarantees ahead of Biden’s trop.

‘Everyone knows that if Russia said that it wouldn’t hit Kyiv during a visit of some statesmen there, it means this will never happen, because we are the ones who keep their word, those who are on the side of the good and the civil,’ pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov said, according to the AP.

The White House did reveal it had warned the Kremlin before Biden turned up in Ukraine’s capital.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Russia was given a heads up for ‘deconfliction purposes’ before Biden headed into the active war zone, where the U.S. has no military presence and only some embassy staff.

While pro-Putin Russians criticized the trip, some MAGA-aligned Republicans did too, grumbling that Biden made this journey instead of visiting East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a toxic train derailment earlier this month.

President Joe Biden walks along the train platform after his visit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Monday

President Joe Biden (center) poses for a photo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) and Olena Zelenska (left) outside Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine on Monday

‘When our border is in crisis, Joe Biden goes home to nap in Delaware. When Ohio burns with toxic chemicals, Biden’s admin says everything is fine. So, on Presidents’ Day, I’m not surprised that Biden is ditching America for Ukraine,’ tweeted Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. ‘He ditched America’s interests since the start of his presidency. They can keep him!’

Other Republicans charged that Biden cared more about Ukraine’s border than the one between the U.S. and Mexico.

‘Breathtaking that President Biden can show up in Ukraine to ensure their border is secure, but can’t do the same for America,’ tweeted Rep. Scott Perry, a Republican from Pennsylvania.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sang a similar tune.

‘I think I and many Americans are thinking to ourselves that he is very concerned about those borders halfway around the world. He’s not doing anything to secure our own border here at home,’ DeSantis said during an appearance on Fox & Friends.

‘He had millions and millions of people pour in, tens of thousands of Americans dead,’ DeSantis added, referring to fentanyl trafficking, which has spiked the number of U.S. drug overdoses.

Democrats, on the other hand, largely praised Biden for making the trip.

Sullivan and other White House officials divulged some details about the planning of the trip after Biden departed from Ukraine’s capital Monday.

‘We did notify the Russians that President Biden would be traveling to Kyiv. We did so some hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes,’ Sullivan said.

He didn’t give details on what the U.S. specifically said to the Russians.

‘And because of the sensitive nature of those communications I won’t get into how they responded or what the precise nature of our message was, but I can confirm that we provided that notification,’ he said on the call.

The White House was also tight-lipped on Biden’s means of travel.

‘We will share it, but we just want to make sure we do so once we feel that it’s operationally safe to do so,’ Sullivan said.

WRONG TRAIN, JOE: Republicans complained that President Joe Biden’s priority should have been the town of East Palestine, Ohio, where a train derailment caused a major environmental disaster. Biden is shown on board the train that took him inside Ukraine Monday

President Joe Biden (left) sits across from his National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (left) as he takes a 10-hour train from Poland to Kyiv, Ukraine ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion

President Joe Biden took the smaller Air Force One, an Air Force C-32, for the secret trip. Instead of flying under the Air Force One call sign it was labeled ‘SAM060,’ for Special Air Mission

However, the New York Times reported that Biden crossed the border by rail.

Later, the two-member press pool reported that Biden flew to Poland on the smaller Air Force One, an Air Force C-32, not one of the Boeing 747s he’d usually take on an overseas trip.

The plane sat in the dark next to a hangar, instead of being parked on the tarmac where the presidential aircraft is parked before an official departure.

The plane didn’t fly under the Air Force One call sign but rather ‘SAM060,’ for Special Air Mission.

It was refueled at Ramstein Air Base in Germany and the blinds were kept drawn during the hour and a half on the ground.

After Biden’s plane departed Germany, the pilots switched off its transponder for the hour-long remainder of the journey to the Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport in Poland, whidh has been used for other VIP visits and for western arms to get into the war-torn country.

Biden then boarded a train at the Przemyśl Główny station, for a 10-hour journey through the night that would take him secretly into Ukraine’s capital.

Upon his arrival in Kyiv, Biden was driven around in a black SUV instead of the Beast, the nickname for the armored presidential limo.

The trip was to remain secret until Biden left Ukraine’s capital, but that changed once locals started capturing and sharing images of Biden and Zelensky walking around.

President Joe Biden (left) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) at Mariinsky Palace during Monday’s trip

President Joe Biden (left) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) walk past St. Mikhailovsky Cathedral in Kyiv on Monday

President Joe Biden (left) signs a guestbook at Mariinsky Palace on Monday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) looks on

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Joe Biden stand next to a plaque with the president’s name on the Alley of Bravery in Kyiv on February 20, 2023.

Even among the ranks of American government, the trip was a closely guarded secret.

Those involved in the planning came from the White House, the chief of staff’s office, the National Security Council, the White House Military Office, the Pentagon, the Secret Service and the intelligence community.

‘Only a handful of people in each of these buildings was involved in the planning for operational security,’ Deputy National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer told reporters.

The trip was made more difficult with no American military personnel on the ground in Ukraine and only a slim U.S. embassy staff.

‘The United States also has a very light embassy footprint compared to the massive operations in Afghanistan and Iraq during wartime visits by presidents to those places,’ Finer said.

Additionally, the president traveled with an ‘extremely small’ party, Finer said, consisting of a handful of his closest aides, including Sullivan, a small medical team, security and two reporters.

The two reporters – a newspaper reporter and a photographer – had their phones taken away from them as they departed.

The rest of Biden’s press pool – which usually consists of around a dozen journalists – was left in Washington.

For days, the White House had publicly said the trip to mark the Ukraine war anniversary was to be strictly to Warsaw, Poland, where the president is scheduled to meet with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda and the leaders of the Bucharest Nine nations.

That part of the trip is expected to go on as planned.

Source: Read Full Article