First Lady Jill Biden says she learned about President Joe Biden’s visit to Ukraine “right before his departure,” reports CNN.

• “He told me right before he left and I said, ‘What, where are you going?'” Jill Biden told reporters Tuesday before boarding a plane for a six-day trip to Namibia and Kenya.

She reiterated that she found out “right before he left” because “he was, you know, covered up,” according to CNN.

When asked if she was worried about Biden’s trip to Ukraine, she replied: “Of course!”

Jill Biden also said that she spoke with the president several times during his trip to Ukraine and Poland. “He felt that everything went well and he was happy to leave,” the first lady added.

Details of Biden’s visit to Kyiv four days before the anniversary of the Russian invasion

Joe Biden arrived in Kyiv on Monday morning around 8:00 a.m. local time and during the several-hour visit he met with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi, walked with him through the center of Kyiv and made joint statements to the press.

On Saturday evening, before leaving, Biden went to dinner with his wife in Washington. According to CNN, he was not seen in public again before arriving in Kyiv on Monday morning.

Biden’s official motorcade arrived at the Mariinsky Palace just after 8:30 a.m. local time. Zelenskyi and his wife Olena Zelenska met him at the entrance.

It became known about Biden’s visit only when he arrived in Kyiv, and it was kept a secret until the last for security reasons. Even while Biden was in Ukraine, the White House continued to say that he would not visit the country.

Accompanied by “a handful of people”

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

Jonathan Feiner, the deputy national security adviser, gave few details about Biden’s trip, noting that preparations had been going on for months and that the final decision was made on Friday after Joe Biden met with several senior officials in the Oval Office, Tha Guardian reported.

• “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 small team worked out every stage of the journey in minute detail, including ground traffic from the Polish border to Kyiv, and developed alternative plans for any contingencies that might arise along the way.

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 several key members of his cabinet,” the source said.

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