ruhle starts now. r with stephanie ruhle starts now tonight, president biden s surprise visit to ukraine, meeting with president zelenskyy while announcing more military aid. what this historic trip means for the future of the war. meanwhile, some far-right republicans criticize the presidents trip to ukraine. what we are hearing from a small but loud minority. then, ron desantis visits new york city to talk policing and crime. is this the unofficial start to a presidential run? as the 11th hour gets underway on this monday night. greetings, i m simone alexander s townsend, in for stephanie ruhle. president biden makes a historic top secret trip to ukraine, as russia s war there nears the one year mark. the presidents trip included a ten hour train ride from the polish border into kyiv. now, this is biden s first visit to ukraine since the war began, and it s the first from a modern-day president to an active war zone with no u.s. military presence on the ground or the ai
word. there is a significant agreement on this important so much larger than just ukraine. it s about freedom and democracy president biden gets tonight s last word from kyiv. the 11th hour with stephanie ruhle starts now. tonight, president biden s surprise visit to ukraine, meeting with president zelenskyy while announcing more military aid. what this historic trip means for the future of the war. meanwhile, some far-right republicans criticize the presidents trip to ukraine. what we are hearing from a small but loud minority. then, ron desantis visits new york city to talk policing and crime. is this the unofficial start to a presidential run? as the 11th hour gets underway on this monday night. greetings, i m simone sanders-townsend, in for stephanie ruhle. president biden makes a historic top secret trip to ukraine, as russia s war there nears the one year mark. the presidents trip included a ten hour train ride from the polish border into kyiv. now, this is
speaking in poland a former eastern bloc country that s no stranger to russian aggression, biden started off by saying that the war has so far defied two big expectations. one, that kyiv would fall within days, and two, that the western alliance would splinter as the war dragged on. watch. one year ago the world was bracing for the fall of kyiv. well, i can report kyiv stands strong. kyiv stands proud. it stands tall. and most important it stands free. when russia invaded it wasn t just ukraine being tested, the whole world faced a test for the ages. europe was being tested. america was being tested. nato was being tested. all democracies are being tested. the questions we faced were simple as they were profound. would we be strong if we looked the other, would we be weak? all of our allies would be united or divided? one year later we know the answer. we did respond, we would be strong, we would be united, and the world would not look the other way. president biden also
can you tell us how all of this actually unfolded? i mean, it s crazy. it not only reads like a thriller, how this actual trip was executed, but the idea that it had various different groups involved from the pentagon, the white house, and the ukrainians, and it, a, didn t leak and, b, got carried out in a very, very difficult week is very something. this ten hour train ride, you know, you know as well anyone else, joe biden loves the train. but this was fraught with issues all the way through the ukrainian countryside, from poland, you know, through and passed lviv, into kyiv, and then being met at the train station here, brought into a city that was basically under lockdown. that hasn t even been the case in kyiv since the beginning of this war, so this was really, really a meticulous piece of planning that was undertaken, and of course, the president, you know, had the final sign of. but it was clear that even last year in poland, when joe biden
the first lady of ukraine, greeting mr. biden. uniformed ukrainian military officers lining the streets, as the two presidents walked through the ukrainian capital, locked down for security. air raid sirens in the distance. then, this dramatic moment, laying a wreath at the wall of remembrance for fall and ukrainian soldiers. punctuated by a moment of silence. tonight, we are learning more about the risky operation that was months in the making. president biden, giving the final sign off on friday, and leaving in the predawn hours sunday. these newly-released images, showing him arriving in kyiv after a ten hour train trip across the ukraine border. the kremlin was notified hours in advance. all as russia has begun its major new offensive in the east. biden is now in warsaw, poland, where he will give a speech and he will be meeting with nato allies.