sidner in new york. this is cnn this morning. kaitlan collins is anchoring live in warsaw, poland. she has some new reporting. let s cabibegin with you, what you hearing? obviously, we are learning details about the details, what happened behind this visit. how the white house is planning this. it was obviously kept secret until president biden was on the ground. he was actually on the ground for some time before we had the white house confirm that he was there, but we re learning that it was months of planning that actually went into this. only a handful of aides from different agencies that were involved in this. obviously, they wanted to keep it an incredibly close hold, because it is such a sensitive visit. what we re learning from the white house is that it was last friday when president biden made the final decision that yes, he was going to be going into this active war zone, right around the anniversary of russia s invasion of ukraine. that s when he decided to go.
good monday morning to you i m jim sciutto. a significant day in ukraine and europe as the u.s. president joe biden makes a surprise visit to the war-torn capital of kyiv as air raid sirens sounded around him. [ air raid sirens ] walking side by side there in the capital with ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy, president biden with this visit sending a strong message to ukraine and to russia, it is his first trip to the country since russia invaded ukraine nearly a year ago. cnn has learned the president made the final decision only on friday to make the unannounced visit, this after multiple invitations from zelenskyy. this morning, the ukrainian president says that biden s visit leaves ukraine, quote, closer to victory. calling it the most important visit to his country in the history of u.s./ukraine relations. during a news conference, president biden announced a fresh swath of sanctions against russia as well as pledging another half billion dollars in military aid,
it is time for the morning moment. austin butler won the best actor award for hivis biopic. after the ceremony, butler told the press, i feel honored to have been welcomed into the family. sit a bittersweet time. and this one very close to home for us, another big win at the baftas, the cnn film navalny won best documentary following the assassination attempt on russian president vladimir putin s fiercest critic alexny navalny. it s an extraordinary film if you haven t seen it. i have seen it twice and cannot recommend it more. i hope it wins a lot more. that does it for us. cnn s coverage of president biden s visit to ukraine continues right now.