Small plane to a 10-hour train journey: Here's how US President Joe Biden travelled to Kyiv

Joe Biden’s unannounced visit to Ukraine was the first time in modern history that a US president visited a warzone outside the control of the US military. Here’s how the trip was planned and kept under wraps.  

US President Joe Biden stunned the world on Monday by travelling to a war-torn Kyiv ahead of the first anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It was the first time in modern history that a US president entered a warzone without being escorted by US troops, an accomplishment described by the White House as being risky, requiring months of careful preparation, and requiring the utmost secrecy.

According to national security adviser Jake Sullivan, a small group of top officials from the White House and various US national security organisations worked covertly for months to arrange Biden's trip to Ukraine. The timing of the visit had to be symbolic without being obvious, senior-most aides planning the trip believed. Biden’s planned trip to Warsaw, Poland, and the Presidents’ Day holiday provided a legitimate opening to tack on a stop in Kyiv.

Biden and his senior advisers repeatedly ruled out a journey to Ukraine in the weeks before his departure. The President only gave the green light on Friday.

Biden gave Air Force One a pass for this covert journey. The 80-year-old Democrat entered an Air Force Boeing 757, also known as a C-32, at 4:00 am (0900 GMT) on Sunday. It had its window curtains drawn as it was positioned in the dark.

The US President, a handful of security personnel, a small medical team, close advisors, and two journalists who had been sworn to secrecy, took off en route to a war zone.

They took a seven-hour flight from Washington to the US military facility in Ramstein, Germany, where they refuelled. Nobody got off the aircraft. The following aircraft arrived at Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport on its way to Poland. He then took a train for the approximately overnight 10-hour journey to Kyiv. 

While Biden was in Kyiv, US surveillance aircraft from Polish airspace, including an electronic RC-135W Rivet Joint and airborne radar E-3 Sentry, were maintaining watch over the Ukrainian city.