This should get you past the WSJ paywall… hopefully:
Seeing the US president walking up the stairs with Zelensky at his side in that building in Kyiv in Feb-2023 was surely not what Putin had in mind in Feb-2022.
The timing of the visit - which could have occurred at any point over the last nine months or so - is undoubtedly intended to send a message a few days before the one year anniversary of the ‘special military operation’ (that just keeps getting more and more special with every passing week). It’s not going to be lost on Putin.
How did President Biden get in and out of the country? In any case, a visit was certainly called for.
Airforce One to Poland and train to Kyiv.
It’s a good morale play for Ukraine and the West. But it sure is going to boost Putin’s domestic propaganda line that Russia is in an existential battle of survival against NATO.
Nah, in Putin’s domestic propaganda, Biden has already visited three times and been assassinated on five of those visits.
The National Review (!) approves of Biden’s trip:
Apparently, Russia was given prior notice.
With that in mind, why the air raid siren, theatrics?
Nope, still paywalled.
It’s elsewhere in the news, of course.
Of course. Because even Putin doesn’t want WW3 and you don’t want that starting accidentally due to a stray missile or artillery strike.
Probably.
I’m thinking that Mr. Biden riding the train from Poland to Kyiv might be a bit nostalgic for him, I don’t think he’s been allowed on trains since he won the election.
The Secret Service probably decided that a Ukrainian train going through a war zone is safer than an American train going through Ohio.
Ultimately, the President has the final word on where he is and isn’t allowed to go. Everything the President does carries risk; it’s just a question of whether the risk is worth it. The President decided that this risk was worth it, so his Secret Service detail has to figure out how to make it as safe as possible, given the parameters the President has set.
If he wanted to, the President could also insist on riding on trains across the US, and the Secret Service would have to go along with that, too. But he hasn’t decided that that’s worth it.
Thanks for letting me know.
The obvious question is why did the SS refuse the trip on January 6th?
If the PotUS did ride Amtrak the required security would no doubt be disruptive to other passengers. I dimly recall something along the lines of Biden opting for other forms of travel as less disruptive to other people.
In the case of visiting Ukraine, though, apparently train is the only way to go at present.
They sound air raid alerts whenever the Russians put a Mig-31K into the air, because they’re used to launch Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.These alerts usually come to nothing, because the Russians don’t have many Kinzhals and so don’t use them very often. You’ll note the Ukrainians weren’t taking much notice of the siren, whereas when they issue alerts about large waves of incoming cruise missiles they do seek shelter.