Ukraine war: Biden’s secretive trip to Kyiv was disguised as a ‘golf tourney’ – here’s how it unfolded
US President Joe Biden has become the latest and most powerful Western leader to visit Kyiv since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
The show of solidarity for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his people came as a surprise to many, as the White House said last week that the US president had no intention of visiting Ukraine.
Whether or not that statement was true at the time is something we will likely never know, but some details of how the president’s secretive and historic visit was carried out are beginning to emerge.
Here is how the high-security operation unfolded.
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‘I gotta handshake here, too?’
Journalists told to await ‘arrival instructions for the golf tourney’
Two journalists were summoned to a private meeting with the White House’s communications director Kate Bedingfield on Friday.
They were informed that President Biden would be travelling to Kyiv and that they were the only two journalists who would be allowed to travel with him.
They would form the “travel pool” – meaning it would be their responsibility to share details with other news organisations.
These pool reporters were sworn to secrecy about the trip and told to look out for an email containing instructions for an early Sunday morning departure from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
The subject line would read: “Arrival instructions for the golf tourney.”
The email arrived just after 3pm eastern US time (8pm UK time) on Saturday.
The journalists were told to report to the Andrews base between 2am and 2.15am eastern US time (7am and 7.15am UK time) the following morning.
Joe Biden sits on the train with his National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Pic: AP
Departure from the air base
The pool journalists arrived at the base and had their phones taken from them. The devices were not returned until their arrival at the US embassy in Kyiv more than 24 hours later.
They then boarded an Air Force C-32 often used to fly into smaller airports during domestic travel.
Before its departure, the plane sat in the dark next to a hangar with the shades drawn and away from the tarmac where it is typically parked for presidential travel.
Air Force One departed from the Andrews base at 4.15am eastern US time (9.15am UK time) on Sunday.
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Biden talks ‘very fruitful’ – Zelenskyy
Biden arrives in Germany
Air Force One touched down at Ramstein Air Base in Germany at 5.13pm local time (4.13pm UK time) Sunday under slightly overcast skies to refuel after an approximately seven-hour flight.
The plane remained with its shades down for the duration of its time on the ground, which lasted roughly an hour and 15 minutes.
The journalists on board remained in the press cabin the entire time and did not see Mr Biden at any point during the flight or stop in Ramstein.
Air Force One took off at 6.29pm local time (5.29pm UK time) after the sun had set and the skies were dark.
Pic: AP
Arrival in Rzeszow
Air Force One landed at the Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport in southeastern Poland at 7.57pm local time (8:57pm UK time) on Sunday.
The airport was clear upon Mr Biden’s arrival.
The journalists did not see the US president get out of Air Force One before he was quickly ushered towards an SUV.
The president’s motorcade began rolling at 8.12pm local time (7.12pm UK time) on a roughly one-hour drive along a fairly empty eastbound highway.
One of the pool journalists counted at least 20 cars in the motorcade which consisted of a mix of minivans, SUVs and suburbans – and sirens were not used to avoid drawing attention.
Pic: AP
Biden catches the train from Poland to Ukraine
Biden’s motorcade arrived at the Przemysl Głowny train station at approximately 9.15pm local time (8.15pm UK time).
The motorcade pulled directly up to a train that was mostly purple with two large strips at the bottom from its exterior and large square windows with the shades mostly drawn.
A handful of the train cars were blue with a yellow stripe along the middle and were reminiscent of the trains that have brought refugees into Poland from Ukraine.
Mr Biden was dropped directly in front of his train car.
The pool journalists were escorted to their own train car and put in separate sleeper cabins, each of which contained four single bunkbed-style beds.
One of the journalists was told by a security officer that the train had approximately eight cars, including the engines.
Most of the train was occupied by a heavy security presence.
A small group of passengers awaiting a separate train on the opposite side of the tracks were huddled in conversation and occasionally glanced over, but it was unclear if they could make out any of the activity unfolding before them.
The train left Przemysl Głowny at 9.37pm local time (8.37pm UK time).
One of the pool journalists was told by an agent on board that the train crossed the border into Ukraine at roughly 10pm local time on Sunday but this was not confirmed.
Much of the journey occurred in the dark and so there was little visible beyond streetlights and the shadows of buildings in the distance.
There was no interaction between the pool journalists and White House staff traveling with the president throughout the 10-hour journey, nor any sightings of Mr Biden on his favourite mode of transport.
There were a handful of stops, at least once to pick up additional security, along the way. It was not always clear what prompted the stops, most of which were brief, and the journalists were isolated from the staff on board.
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Biden and Zelenskyy meet in Kyiv
Biden arrives in Kyiv
The sun had risen as the train carrying President Biden approached the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
One of the journalists aboard described how “views from the window largely consisted of graffiti walls, barren winter trees and a colourful assortment of brick homes – many of them in pastel colours”.
The train came to a stop at the Kyiv-Pasazhyrsky station at roughly 8am local time (6am UK time) on Monday.
The area around the platform had been cleared and US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, awaited Mr Biden and his staff in chilly outdoor conditions.
The president’s first words after stepping off the train were: “It’s good to be back in Kyiv.”
The motorcade, which again was a mix of SUVs, minivans and armoured vehicles, rolled from the train station to Mariinsky Palace – the official residence of the Ukrainian president.
Along the way, the motorcade passed Kyiv’s Independence Square, the site of major demonstrations in 2013 and 2014.
The president’s stops consisted of a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Mariinsky Palace, a walkabout with Mr Zelenskyy at St. Michael’s Cathedral, and a stop at the US embassy in Kyiv.
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Joe Biden arrives in Poland
Biden heads back to Poland
Biden departed Kyiv just before 1.10pm local time (11.10am UK time) in the same train he arrived in.
The train crossed the border back into Poland shortly after 8pm local time (7pm UK time).
The train arrived at the Przemyśl Główny at 8:45pm (7.45pm).
World
Trump vowed to end Ukraine war in first 24 hours of his presidency – nearly 200 days in, could he be close?
Seven hours is a long time in US politics.
At 10am, Donald Trump accused Russia of posing a threat to America’s national security.
By 5pm, Mr Trump said there was a “good prospect” of him meeting Vladimir Putin “soon”.
There had, he claimed, been “great progress” in talks between his special envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian president.
It’s difficult to gauge the chances of a meeting between the two leaders without knowing what “great progress” means.
Is Russia “inclined” towards agreeing a ceasefire, as Ukraine’s president now claims?
Is Mr Putin prepared to meet with his Ukrainian foe, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, too?
The very fact that we’re asking those questions suggests something shifted on a day when there was no expectation of a breakthrough.
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Zoo kills 12 healthy baboons to ease overcrowding
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Mr Trump repeatedly vowed to end the war within 24 hours of becoming president.
On day 198 of his presidency, he might, just might, be one step closer to achieving that.
Staff at a zoo in Germany which culled 12 baboons and fed some of their carcasses to the lions say they have received death threats.
Tiergarten Nuremberg euthanised the healthy Guinea baboons at the end of July due to overcrowding in their enclosure.
Some remains were used for research while the rest were fed to the zoo’s carnivores.
Plans to kill the baboons were first announced last year after the population exceeded 40, and protestors gathered outside the zoo to show their outrage.
When the site closed last Tuesday to carry out the cull, several activists were arrested after climbing the fence.
The director of the zoo defended the decision, saying efforts to sterilise and rehome some baboons had failed.
“We love these animals. We want to save a species. But for the sake of the species, we have to kill individuals otherwise we are not able to keep up a population in a restricted area,” Dr Dag Encke told Sky News.
These are not the specific animals involved. File pics: Reuters
‘The staff are suffering’
He said police are investigating after he and the staff were sent death threats.
“The staff are really suffering, sorting out all these bad words, insults and threats,” Dr Encke said.
“The normal threat is ‘we will kill you, and we’ll feed you to the lions’.
“But what is really disgusting is when they say that’s worse than Dr Mengele from the National Socialists, who was one of the most cruel people in human history.
“That is really insulting all the victims of the Second World War and the Nazi regime.”
Josef Mengele was a Nazi officer who performed deadly experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War.
Dr Dag Encke
Zoo animals ‘treated as commodities’
Culling animals and feeding them to predators isn’t unheard of in zoos.
In 2014, Copenhagen Zoo caused controversy by euthanizing an 18-month-old male giraffe called Marius and feeding his body to the lions.
At the time, the zoo said it was due to a duty to avoid inbreeding.
Dr Mark Jones, a vet and head of policy at Born Free Foundation, a charity which campaigns for animals to be kept in the wild, denounced the practice and said thousands of healthy animals are being destroyed by zoos each year.
“It reflects the fact animals in zoos are often treated as commodities that are disposable or replaceable,” he said.
Marius the giraffe was put down and publicly fed to lions at at Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark. Pic: Keld Navntoft/AFP/Getty
Zoo asks for unwanted pets
Earlier this week, a zoo in Denmark faced a backlash for asking for unwanted pets to be donated to be used as food for its predators.
In a Facebook post, Aalborg Zoo said it could take smaller live animals such as chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs, as well as horses under 147cm. It said the animals would be euthanised by specially trained staff before being fed to carnivores like the European lynx.
While some people supported the scheme, saying they had donated animals in the past, others are outraged.
“The very idea of a zoo offering to take unwanted pets in order to kill them and feed them to their predators will, I think, horrify most right-minded people,” said Dr Jones.
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Dr Mark Jones
Aalborg Zoo has now closed the post to comments and said in a statement: “For many years at Aalborg Zoo, we have fed our carnivores with smaller livestock.
“When keeping carnivores, it is necessary to provide them with meat, preferably with fur, bones, etc., to give them as natural a diet as possible.
“Therefore, it makes sense to allow animals that need to be euthanised for various reasons to be of use in this way.
“In Denmark, this practice is common, and many of our guests and partners appreciate the opportunity to contribute.”
World
Trump could meet Putin as early as next week to discuss Ukraine ceasefire – White House official
Donald Trump could meet Vladimir Putin in person as early as next week to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine, a White House official has said.
They said the meeting would be conditional on the Russian president meeting his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Sky News’s US partner network NBC News reported.
It came days before the White House’s deadline for Russia to reach a peace deal with Ukraine or face severe economic penalties, which could also target countries buying its oil.
Asked during a news conference at the White House if the talks would take place, Mr Trump said: “There’s a very good prospect that they will.”
He said it had not been determined where the talks would take place, but added: “We had some very good talks with President Putin today.”
However, he said: “I’ve been disappointed before with this one.”
Asked if Mr Putin made any kind of concession to lead to the development, Mr Trump did not give much away, but added: “We’ve been working on this a long time. There are thousands of young people dying, mostly soldiers, but also, you know, missiles being hit into Kyiv and other places.”
More tariffs ‘could happen’
Mr Trump also said he could announce further tariffs on China similar to the 25% he announced on India over its purchases of Russian oil.
“Could happen,” he said, after saying he expected to announce more secondary sanctions intended to pressure Russia into ending its war with Ukraine.
Earlier, he imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, on top of a previous 25% tariff, over its continued purchases of Russian oil.
India’s foreign ministry spokesperson said the additional tariffs were “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable”.
Vladimir Putin welcomes Steve Witkoff during a meeting in Moscow. Pic: Sputnik/Reuters
It came after Mr Putin held talks with Mr Trump‘s special envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow, with the meeting lasting around three hours.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump said Mr Witkoff “had a highly productive meeting” with Mr Putin in which “great progress was made”.
He said he had updated America’s European allies, and they will work towards an end to the Russia-Ukraine war “in the days and weeks to come”.
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Correspondents in Washington and Moscow break down a busy day of diplomacy
‘The war must end’
Mr Zelenskyy later said he and Mr Trump spoke on the phone after the meeting. He said “European leaders also participated in the conversation” and “we discussed what was said in Moscow”.
He added: “Our common position with our partners is absolutely clear: The war must end. We all need lasting and reliable peace. Russia must end the war that it started.”
Mr Zelenskyy later said: “It seems that Russia is now more inclined to agree to a ceasefire.”
He added that the pressure on Moscow “is working”, without elaborating, and stressed it was important to make sure Russia does not “deceive us or the United States” when it comes to “the details” of a potential agreement.
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