President Joe Biden’s administration has announced that he will be crossing the pond to Poland on February 20 through 22, just days before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s Ukraine invasion.
Cockburn finds the dates curious — and wonders if the president will make a surprise visit to the epicenter of the conflict on the anniversary itself.
The scheduled trip looks like it will already be a busy one, meeting with American allies in the region and reasserting Washington’s “unwavering support for the security of the Alliance.”
The real kicker will be if Biden makes his way to Kyiv and meets Zelensky, ending the unfortunate distinction of him being one of the few Western leaders yet to travel to Ukraine.
He has sent emissaries, from the first lady to the secretaries of state and defense, but a personal trip would carry much more weight. What could emphasize American support for the beleaguered country quite like the leader of the free world making his presence known?
The security concerns are very real, and are a somewhat understandable reason to have avoided the country so far. But to continue to do so risks sending a bad message, especially given the fact that so many other allied leaders have made the trek already. Boris Johnson, Andrzej Duda and the Baltic chief executives visited last April. Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Schulz, Mario Draghi,and Klaus Iohannis visited in June. The EU’s Ursula von der Leyen arrived for the fourth time just weeks ago. Even Canada’s Justin Trudeau came to Ukraine last May.
Right now Biden is being out-masced by the prime minister of Canada and a German lady called Ursula. Surely he’s not… chicken?
“It is surprising President Biden has yet to go to Ukraine and we’ll be interested to see if this trip results in him doing so,” a source close to Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said.
“Many US officials have gone to Ukraine — and if Biden decides to go, we expect that he would take every security precaution necessary to keep himself and his team safe.”
The US recently announced its desire to fully restaff the embassy in Kyiv in the coming months. If Washington is willing to do that, the president of the United States can probably make a showing. As Ukraine faces a renewed Russian offensive in the East, any morale boost would be a great help to its hard-fighting troops — and the leader of the world’s most powerful country stopping in Kyiv in a show of solidarity and support would be quite the boost.
If the president does visit Ukraine, Cockburn will be more than happy to accept the credit for convincing him.
