How Biden's wartime visit to Kyiv came together

[+Grim Reaper 6]

President Joe Biden’s decision to make a risky wartime visit to Kyiv took root after a similarly clandestine mission just two months ago — when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to Washington and addressed a joint meeting of Congress, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Senior members of Biden’s national security team who had helped arrange that travel at the end of last year were heartened — and pleasantly surprised — by how powerful and positive the reaction to Zelenskyy's trip seemed to be among the American people, the sources, who like others in this story were granted anonymity to discuss internal planning, said. It was Zelenskyy's first travel outside Ukraine since the start of the war.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-biden-s-wartime-visit-to-kyiv-came-together/ar-AA17J8EW?cvid=595072b0e25e4b58b0d531913a6ce601

 

[acidhead]

10% for the Big guy

[lightly]

Makes him look good to voters (they hope).  Makes him look  ‘firm’. ,  and on top of the situation.  ?    The military industrial complex, and their masters/investors are probably toasting to a possible escalation.     I could be wrong of course, but I’m not. 

[el midgetron]

 

 

 

 

[el midgetron]

 

[+and-then]

Meanwhile, his handlers warned Beijing not to dare provide lethal aide to Russia.  Who the hell do they think they are?  If a viable alliance is formed between Russia, China, Iran, possibly India, it can all be laid at the door of the US and NATO.  This little party may just be starting.

[+Grim Reaper 6]

1 hour ago, lightly said:

Makes him look good to voters (they hope).  Makes him look  ‘firm’. ,  and on top of the situation.  ?    The military industrial complex, and their masters/investors are probably toasting to a possible escalation.     I could be wrong of course, but I’m not. 

I doubt voters care one way of the other and it is pretty obvious that his visit has been misconstrued even by many Republican members of this forum, which i find hilarious.  The reason Biden choose a covert appearance in the Ukraine is to show the World and especially Vladimir Putin that the United States STANDS FIRMLY behind the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But, I also suspect an anterior motive was to p*** off Vladimir Putin, who I suspect is sitting in his bunker in Moscow screening at four walls!

JIMHO

 

 

 

Edited February 21 by Grim Reaper 6

[Tatetopa]

28 minutes ago, and-then said:

Meanwhile, his handlers warned Beijing not to dare provide lethal aide to Russia.  Who the hell do they think they are?  If a viable alliance is formed between Russia, China, Iran, possibly India, it can all be laid at the door of the US and NATO.  This little party may just be starting.

Root for China if you want to. 

[+Grim Reaper 6]

4 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

Root for China if you want to. 

Dam shame isn’t it, Biden steps up and does the right thing. To only be criticized for actually putting his own safety to the side to deliver a message to Vladimir Putin that America stands with the Ukraine. If anyone doubted it before there should be no doubt that America will stand with the Ukraine to the end!

JIMHO

[+and-then]

They neglected to mention that they got permission from Vlad before landing.  Funny, that.  The only thing "dark" about Brandon are the skid marks in his drawers  

[+and-then]

11 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

Root for China if you want to. 

Just pointing out the sheer hypocrisy.  The days of our country dictating behavior to others has passed.  The current regime has no moral standing to dictate anything to anyone.  Joe and family will never seriously hold Xi accountable.  The corruption is too deep even for our sold out Marxist media to cover up.

Root for their (Bidens) corruption if you want to...

[Hankenhunter]

21 minutes ago, and-then said:

Just pointing out the sheer hypocrisy.  The days of our country dictating behavior to others has passed.  The current regime has no moral standing to dictate anything to anyone.  Joe and family will never seriously hold Xi accountable.  The corruption is too deep even for our sold out Marxist media to cover up.

Root for their (Bidens) corruption if you want to...

Thank you, I will. Must just kill you watching Biden being an actual president compared to the corrupt loser you've hitched your wagon to. 

[+and-then]

1 hour ago, lightly said:

 The military industrial complex, and their masters/investors are probably toasting to a possible escalation

The weapons companies probably think it's a dream come true but I think even our professional military are concerned that we may stumble into something we just aren't ready for.  From where I sit it looks like this war is going to continue until NATO removes Putin or Putin presides over the dismantling of NATO.  Joe can assure everyone that the US will keep supplying Ukraine for "as long as it takes" but sooner or later it will ONLY be the US paying the freight.  I think we are nearing the point where dollars aren't going to matter when it comes to supplying munitions.  There simply aren't enough plants currently operating to keep Ukraine supplied at their current rate of consumption.

We are fighting Russia's tactics and Russia planned for this rate of artillery consumption.  We didn't.  Our wars have been underpinned primarily by massive, overwhelming air power.  That's why I'm concerned that eventually NATO is going to roll into Ukraine to finally put a stop to Russia's military.  IF that happens, those who think Putin is going to fold, are just deluding themselves.

[+Grim Reaper 6]

49 minutes ago, and-then said:

They neglected to mention that they got permission from Vlad before landing.  Funny, that.  The only thing "dark" about Brandon are the skid marks in his drawers  

No they didn’t neglect anything, in fact the Kremlin didn’t know Biden’s exact itinerary. They were only informed he would visit the Ukraine  during a certain time block not exactly when he would enter or leave!

“”Sullivan said the Kremlin was informed of Biden’s travel “hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes” — though the wider public remained unaware of it for much longer. 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,” Sullivan added””

https://nypost.com/2023/02/20/white-house-gave-russia-a-heads-up-about-bidens-visit/

[Tatetopa]

13 minutes ago, and-then said:

The days of our country dictating behavior to others has passed. 

You can hate Biden, you may admire Russia's authoritarian  government but listening to Russia  may not be your best source of information.  Russia planned for a short war, they did not plan for this year.  They even got old ammo from North Korea. Putin did not expect such resistance, and his support is waning.  Its not all Russia's way.   

Some of that we might agree on, however, I am still America First.  We are still the biggest bull in the pasture.   China does a better job with their soft power, building roads instead of sending troops.  We could learn something from them on that, but we are still competitors for world markets and resources.   Like bulls in the pasture, we bellow and paw the ground, snort and strut around. It is posturing to avoid direct confrontation which would seriously injure us both.

China doesn't care about helping Russia, they don't care who wins, they do profit from the war being prolonged though because it distracts Europe and the US.  China needs the time to re-stabilize their regime and recover from their environmental problems.

Looking at the situation, it is obvious that the US wants the war to end, as does Europe and most of all Ukraine.  Biden did not ask Putin's permission, but alerted him of the visit.  Since Putin did know, air raid sirens, had they been real would have signaled the start of the war you fear. 

Biden showing up in Kiev does not cost billions, but it signals US interest as much as does financial aid. Convincing Putin that the war won't be won anytime soon might encourage him to develop a face saving story and go home.

Better take a close look at India too.  They are not on good terms with China.  They are launching a second aircraft carrier group, this one made at home in India.  They are about to move up from the kiddies table.  They are not going to side with the US or China, because their interests  are their own.  

 

[Gromdor]

The visit itself was a huge morale blow against Russia.  They've been telling their people that their boys have been putting up the good fight and has Ukraine on the ropes.  Then a few days before Defender of the Fatherland Day Zelenski hosts Biden for tea and crumpets.

Kind of hard to hide the fact that Ukraine is in a stable enough state to hold guests and not on the verge of collapse.

[+Grim Reaper 6]

56 minutes ago, and-then said:

They neglected to mention that they got permission from Vlad before landing.  Funny, that.  The only thing "dark" about Brandon are the skid marks in his drawers  

No they didn’t neglect anything, in fact the Kremlin didn’t know Biden’s exact itinerary. They were only informed he would visit the Ukraine not when he would enter or leave!

Sullivan said the Kremlin was informed of Biden’s travel “hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes” — though the wider public remained unaware of it for much longer.

“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,” Sullivan added.

[spartan max2]

2 hours ago, el midgetron said:

 

For 5 days. What a record 

[+Grim Reaper 6]

43 minutes ago, Gromdor said:

The visit itself was a huge morale blow against Russia.  They've been telling their people that their boys have been putting up the good fight and has Ukraine on the ropes.  Then a few days before Defender of the Fatherland Day Zelenski hosts Biden for tea and crumpets.

Yes it was a huge Morale blow to the Russian government and Vladimir Putin personally. Now the people and the Government know without any doubt that the United States stands shoulder to shoulder with the Ukraine and they will be there until the end. This visit speaks volumes and when the Russian Soldiers finally hear of this, it will cause what little morale they left to fade to black. What’s sad is that the MAGA Republicans are already denouncing this situation and trying to use it based political affiliations, and while overlooking the clear cut relevance of the act itself.

43 minutes ago, Gromdor said:

Kind of hard to hide the fact that Ukraine is in a stable enough state to hold guests and not on the verge of collapse.

• Your certainly right and it proves that security in the Ukrainian Capital is strong, because if the CIA, NSA, of The Secret Service thought otherwise this surprise would not have occurred p,

Edited February 21 by Grim Reaper 6

[+Grim Reaper 6]

13 minutes ago, spartan max2 said:

For 5 days. What a record 

To me the voices of all these critics sitting in their armed chairs are worthless and I bet they all have bone spurs!

Peace Dude!

[el midgetron]

The White House notified the Kremlin of Joe Biden’s intention to visit Kyiv hours before he departed for Ukraine, it has been revealed, as the details began to emerge of how the US president pulled off his high-profile diplomatic coup.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/20/how-biden-pulled-off-a-visit-to-an-active-ukrainian-war-zone

[el midgetron]

27 minutes ago, spartan max2 said:

For 5 days. What a record 

Ha, of course it was staged. You think the Secret Service wouldn’t have wisked Biden away to a safe location if there was a legitimate threat of bombs falling on Kyiv? They knew there was no danger, the sirens were for dramatic effect. 

[+Grim Reaper 6]

7 minutes ago, el midgetron said:

The White House notified the Kremlin of Joe Biden’s intention to visit Kyiv hours before he departed for Ukraine, it has been revealed, as the details began to emerge of how the US president pulled off his high-profile diplomatic coup.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/20/how-biden-pulled-off-a-visit-to-an-active-ukrainian-war-zone

As always your late and dollar short I posted this earlier!

 

[el midgetron]

Just now, Grim Reaper 6 said:

As always your late and dollar short I posted this earlier!

Sorry, I usually just scroll past your posts. This post of your is a good example why. 

[+Grim Reaper 6]

2 minutes ago, el midgetron said:

Ha, of course it was staged. You think the Secret Service wouldn’t have wisked Biden away to a safe location if there was a legitimate threat of bombs falling on Kyiv? They knew there was no danger, the sirens were for dramatic effect. 

Showing up in Kyiv was also a dramatic effect that is crushing  Russian Moral both with in the government and within the anks of Russias soldiers