BIDEN VISITS UKRAINE FOR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF WAR

Joe Biden has visited the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, defying threats of Russian missile attacks to announce a new package of additional US weapons supplies worth $500m (£415m), as Ukraine prepares to mark the sombre anniversary of last year’s full-scale Russian invasion.

Biden arrived in Kyiv after a 10-hour train journey from the Polish border, a route taken by other international leaders before him, and after leaving Washington in secrecy with a small group of officials and a small pool of reporters.

Arriving in the Ukrainian capital, Biden got a short first-hand taste of the terror that Ukrainians have lived with for close to a year as sirens sounded over the capital as he and Zelenskiy were exiting the gold-domed St Michael’s Cathedral.

In a post on his social media channels, Zelenskiy welcomed Biden to Kyiv posting a photograph of the two men standing in front of Ukrainian and US flags.

While the specifics of Biden’s visit remained unclear, it emerged that Washington had “basic communication with the Russians … to ensure deconfliction” immediately before the visit to avoid a dangerous misjudgment, although officials were cagey about what information was passed on. READ MORE