deliberations that went behind this we re told. they decided the message they would be sending by biden going into ukraine was worth the risk by going into ukraine. they had this plane that left in the middle of the night in washington. the blinds were pulled down as he was traveling and flying over. only two reporters on the plane, had their phones taken and confiscated from them, obviously to keep it under wraps. president biden only taking a small contingent with aides. typically he travels with a big footprint. they tried to keep it incredibly small as they flew to poland. in poland is where he boarded the train for the ten-hour ride into ukraine, into kyiv. you can t fly into kyiv. you haven t seen any of the world leaders do this. they took this ten-hour journey in the middle of the night with reporters in different cabins than president biden as they made a few stops to pick up more
president dimitri medvedev. they acknowledged they knew biden was on the ground. he went on to accuse nato of earning money and stealing weapons to sell to terrorists around the world. we have not heard directly from president putin since biden s visit. we re expected to hear much more from putin tomorrow. he s due to give a big speech not long before president biden does the same thing in warsaw. john. alex marquardt in kyiv. thank you for that report. with me cnn s kaitlan collins and phil mattingly in warsaw and cnn s nic robertson is with us from london. a top security council official told you this was a, quote, calculated risk. talk to us about the logistics and security that it took for president biden s team to get him in there safely to an active war zone. reporter: there was a lot. you have not seen a u.s. president go into an active war zone at any time in recent memory. there were a lot of
not staking together. he thought he could outlast us. i don t think he s thinking that right now. reporter: while zelenskyy called the moment the most important in the history of the u.s.-ukraine relationship. translator: this is the visit in this most difficult period for ukraine when ukraine is fighting for our own liberty. today our negotiations were very fruitful. they were very important and crucial. reporter: negotiations about continued military aid. today president biden announcing an almost half billion dollar aid package including ammunition, howitzers and air defense, but big-ticket items like longer range missiles and fighter jets still up for discussion. tran tran this conversation brings us closer to victory. reporter: this surprise, unprecedented visit on the eve of a bloody anniversary. extreme secrecy shrouding biden s journey. no word but there were signs, deserted streets and heavy
quickly and at least get ready to send these things because of the long lag time of training and reconditioning. so president biden s trip today prompted criticism from republicans who have questioned, some, u.s. aid to ukraine. i want you to listen to florida governor ron desantis who may well end up running for president. he reiterated the call for no blank checks to ukraine. and i don t think it s in our interest to be getting into proxy war with china getting involved over things like the border lanes or over crimea. so what do you think of that? it s a florida governor with zero foreign policy experience making a campaign gesture. look, i hear about the 11 republicans on the far, far right extreme having a resolution to cut off all funding. i think it s more valuable and
somewhat contradictory. what is china doing? is it trying to normalize relations with the u.s. with the two presidents meetings and secretary blinken meeting yo. and then this word of the possibility of sending lethal weaponry to the ukraine conflict, this would be met with an extraordinary reaction by the u.s. i d like to think that the fact that it s become public will further discourage them from any such action. lastly, tomorrow there are dueling speeches. russian president vladimir putin will give a big address to his people that happens just before president biden gives a speech planned in poland. what will you be listening for from vladimir putin? i think what you re going to hear from putin, he s going to be addressing the russian public, but i think what he s really doing is speaking to his