support for ukraine remains strong. that s nothing to worry about. then when it was clear a far right faction within the republican party could stop the speaker of the house from taking over, it had them reassess how strong is this. that s whoo the biden administration starting with senior officials in the white house all the way to the cia director in visits to the ukraine that they ve made, you know, weeks ahead of this visit have said the moment on the battlefield is absolutely critical. we cannot gary teen that funding is going to stay at the level it has been. they said, of course, biden s promise remains valid. we will support ukraine as long as it takes, but that doesn t mean that funding is going to stay at the same level for that entire period of time. so you can also expect those discussions to be playing out between president biden and president zelenskyy on this trip
way too early on this monday, february 20th. i m jonathan lemire alongside nbc s ali vitali. we have breaking news this morning. president joe biden is in ukraine. he made the trip ahead of the one-year anniversary of russia s invasion of ukraine. he had been scheduled to depart tonight from washington to poland. he would give a speech marking the anniversary of the war and the u.s. s commitment to ukraine s cause, but he made this trip days in advance. we re seeing now brand-new images of president biden in kyiv with ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy. the two presidents walked around downtown kyiv, images appearing on social media. and then these here at ukrainian government buildings. the president of the united states, again, has made a secret trip to kyiv, days ahead of the
clear message the u.s. will be in this in the long hall in support of its allies. josh, it seems this trip is well timed not just because of the anniversary of the war, but because so many believe the war is about to hit a critical inflection point because there is a fear of war weariness. also it s a much telegraphed offensive. it s not clear they can make another strike at kyiv, but certainly it feels like they re trying to regain some territory they had lost, previously conquered in the east and south, and ukraine running dangerously low on ammunition and other supplies. so the kind of signal the president is sending, showing him there by himself, would also say it s safe enough to be in kyiv, the russians can t target him. reporter: certainly the white
his first to ukraine since russia invaded almost a year ago. he met ukraine s president volodmyr zelensky and both men visited a memorial for ukraine s war dead. at a news conference mr biden announced more military, political and financial support for kyiv and he said ukraine would be supported for as long as it takes . our correspondent james waterhouse reports form kyiv. in a city no stranger to big visitors, this was the biggest. the most powerful politician in the world, ukraine s biggest ally, arriving to the heart of a war, to the delight of his host. joe biden has been here before, but not as president. that is an important symbol for us, and we are proud of it. thank you very much for coming, mr president. i think it s my eighth trip, and much has changed. much has changed indeed. sirens wail. just listen to the sirens
war. this is his first trip there since the conflict began. he was one of the last western leaders to make this trip for obvious security reasons. that s why this trip was not announced until now. we re seeing images of the president of the united states in poland where he ll be marking this presidents day. let s go now to nbc news correspondent josh letterman who s in warsaw, poland, with more. josh, what can you tell us about this stunning trip? reporter: well, jonathan, obviously, this has been a highly anticipated trip ever since the start of the war. reporters, we and others, have been asking for a full year now when president biden was going to be able to make this symbolically important visit to kyiv. today as we are just a few days ahead of the one-year anniversary of the war, president biden finally able to make that visit, leaving washington under the cover of darkness. as you mentioned, he was not