A year ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin hoped to be able to quickly celebrate the conquest of the Ukrainian capital. A year later, it is the American president, Joe Biden, who strolls through the streets of kyiv, despite the airborne warning sirens, alongside the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, displaying “unwavering support” from the United States to Ukraine, and considering that “the war of conquest” of Moscow is “failing”.
Joe Biden’s visit also took place on Monday, February 20, the “Day of the heroes of the celestial centuria”, the commemorative day in tribute to the hundred dead of the “revolution of dignity” of the Euromaidan movement of 2014 Kiev considers the activists who died during Maidan as the first heroes of the struggle for a Ukraine freed from the yoke of Moscow, an independent and democratic Ukraine. The symbol, after a year of a Russian invasion for the moment held in check, must have struck the spirits in Moscow.
MM. Zelensky and Biden went to pay their respects in front of the “Wall of Remembrance”, near the Saint-Michel-au-Dôme-d’Or monastery, holding a minute of silence in tribute to those who died for Ukraine, whether the pro-European democrats who fell in 2014 under the bullets of the then pro-Russian government, or the fighters who have given their lives to fight Moscow’s aggression since February 2022. Joe Biden has expressed his admiration for “heroism” Ukrainians.
“Democracy holds. America stands by your side”
Mr. Zelensky greeted his counterpart at the Mariinsky Palace on the latter’s arrival by train from Poland. The visit of the American president had, for security reasons, not been announced. The Ukrainian leader recalled that a year ago, when the first missiles fell on kyiv on February 24 at dawn, “the first call for support for Ukraine came from the White House”. “A year later, kyiv is still holding up. Democracy holds. America stands by your side, the world stands by your side, underlined Joe Biden. I think it is very important to leave no doubt that the United States supports Ukraine in its war against this brutal aggression. »
The two men “spent time discussing the months ahead, in terms of the battlefield, and what Ukraine will need to succeed,” explained Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, who accompanied the American president.
In addition to energy issues and the aid provided to Ukraine, the two leaders also discussed the political aspect, in particular the upcoming session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly devoted to the war, as well as the plan put forward by Kiev with a view to resolving the conflict, based on “the principles of the UN Charter, starting with sovereignty and territorial integrity”, recalled Jake Sullivan. From an American source, it is explained that it was a question, for Joe Biden, of hearing precisely from the mouth of Volodymyr Zelensky what were the military goals set by Kiev for the coming months, since, by general opinion, this is not the time for negotiations with Moscow.
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