President Joe Biden appeared to have a quiet weekend at the White House, going to dinner with wife Jill Biden at a restaurant on Saturday as part of a rare trip to Washington, Reuters writes.

But behind the scenes, the White House and other agencies have been planning intensively for Biden to make an unannounced visit to Kyiv to show solidarity with Ukraine, days before the anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

After months of planning, Biden decided to go ahead with the trip on Friday, according to the White House.

White House officials said Biden was flown to Joint Base Andrews near Washington and left aboard Air Force One on Sunday, accompanied by several aides. Instead of his usual press team, only a reporter and a photographer went with him.

The president arrived overnight at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany from the United States. The plane was refueled and then flew to Rzeszów in southeastern Poland. After an hour’s drive, he arrived in Przemyśl, a town on the border between Poland and Ukraine.

Then Biden boarded a train and drove 10 hours to Kyiv. Biden’s train traveled in the dark with an increased security presence on board.

The train stopped at Kyiv-Pasajyrskyi station in the Ukrainian capital around 08:00 local time (06:00 GMT) on Monday. The area around the platform was evacuated, US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink was waiting for Biden and his staff.

“It’s nice to be back in Kyiv,” Biden said after getting off the train.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who accompanied the president, said US officials had told Russian officials that Biden would travel to Kyiv.

“We did it a few hours before he left,” he told reporters on a conference call.

Sullivan said the trip “required a security, operations and logistics effort from professionals across the U.S. government to take a risky operation and make it a manageable level of risk.”

Residents of Kyiv live under the constant threat of Russian missile and drone attacks.

After the visit, Biden boarded the train again to travel to Przemyśl. Having arrived there, he headed for Warsaw.

The final decision on Biden’s visit to Kyiv was made on Friday

According to Tha Guardian, Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Feiner also gave few details about Biden’s trip, noting that it had been months in the making and the final decision was made on Friday after Joe Biden met with several senior officials in the office.

• “The team that accompanied the president was extremely small, essentially consisting of a few people — his closest aides, a small medical team, a photographer and security,” Feiner said.

This visit was meticulously planned over several months, involving several White House departments, as well as representatives from the Pentagon and, of course, the Secret Service. This team worked out every stage of the journey in detail, including ground traffic from the Polish border to Kyiv, and developed alternative plans for possible contingencies that could occur along this stretch.

In the end, after a discussion in the Oval Office on Friday with his close associates, Biden himself made the final decision to go to Kyiv, assessing that although the risks are there, they can be managed.

“The president was briefed on every step of the plan and then made the final decision to go after meeting in the Oval Office and with some key members of his cabinet,” the source said, adding that there was constant communication. White House with Ukraine.

During a several-hour visit to Kyiv, Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and announced new financial aid and military equipment for Ukraine. Air raid sirens wailed during the visit of the US president.

READ ALSO:

• VIDEO US President Joe Biden, sudden visit to Kyiv / Biden, statements with Zelensky: Remind the world every day what courage means
• PHOTO/VIDEO Behind the scenes of Biden’s historic visit to Kyiv four days before the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine