Of this last week. let us know how it came about. yeah. we broke this story a couple weeks ago, that top u.s. officials were having secret meetings in washington to honor zelenskyy s request to have a high-level u.s. delegation go to kyiv. president biden really not considered an option, not now. immediately, they focused on, indeed, these two secretaries. secretary of state blinken. secretary of defense austin. trying to decide between the two. they said, let s send both. it is that much more powerful of a symbol to send both of them there. this trip was done in secrecy. the press pool did not accompany them on this trip. they traveled from poland by train. their cover blown by zelenskyy himself. on saturday, he announced, his team announced they were coming. there was a brief moment of pause. thank you, mr. president. a moment of consideration with officials in the white house, but the decision was made to forge forward. they re glad they did. both secretaries now returned to
And how much pressure does it put on the white house the fact that the british prime minister boris johnson did go to kyiv. reporter: i don t know if it puts pressure on the white house, john, but definitely puts questions to them whether this is something president biden himself wants to do, of course remember when he was in warsaw said he actually wanted to go to ukraine, a few weeks ago and said he wasn t allowed to because of safety reasons and the determinations they make about sending a president into a warzone where there s no u.s. troop presence, but did confirm today, they are talking privately about sending someone from the biden administration to ukraine, and i m told right now it s very unlikely that would be president biden or vice-president harris they just say that is not something that s currently in the works here at the white house, but maybe defense secretary austin or secretary of state blinken, somebody high profile to go there as a show of symbolic support right
Deep ties with ukraine, reinforce how the alliance across europe is working together. it is another pledge of support, and i m told that within days or weeks, admiral, that very well could happen. would you agree with that decision to send someone? who would you suggest it be and what message do they bring? well, i m obviously very happy to see this conversation under folding. i think it ought to be minimum cabinet level official. i think the president ought to consider it. having said that, my vote would go to lloyd austin because not only is he secretary of defense but he s a former four star general, a very capable war fighter. he is someone who is a big, imposing figure, and i think it would send a very powerful message to vladimir putin. so lloyd austin, if you are watching, you have my vote. go to kyiv. i ve got an idea.
Unveiling a new military package for ukraine, one that includes more sophisticated and heavier duty weaponry than previous shipments made. this comes as president biden is weighing whether to send a senior member of his administration to ukraine as a show of support. kaitlin collins joins us. what are you learning about who president biden may send to ukraine. well, it s not going to be president biden or vice president harris based on what we ve heard so far. they are talking about sending a senior official. some of the names thrown out there to me have been defense secretary austin, secretary of state blinken, maybe one of those two, though it doesn t seem close to being decided yet. but this came up really because you saw the british prime minister, boris johnson, go to kyiv over the weekend. he made this surprise visit. it took a lot to get him there. he had to travel by car, my helicopter. he was on a train several hours because you can t just fly into ukraine and kyiv like a he
Country and they are willing to do the fighting themselves. we need to do it as soon as possible. when you look at biden, nato, western europe, they have not shown the necessary urgency for this moment in history. over the weekend, british my minister boris johnson, he did make a surprise trip to kyiv to support zelenskyy. got to give them a lot of credit. don t expect a similar trip from your president, joe biden. according to joe, they won t let him go. i m not allowed to take questions or anything. they get mad at me when i go back and the other room. you are the president. you want to go to kyiv, go to kyiv. today our own jacqui heinrich asked just who they are. this is interesting. take a look. has the president asked to to goto ukraine. i m not going to get into private conversations. what i can tell you is we are not planning a trip by the president of the united states to ukraine. what is most important to ukrainian leadership is that we are expediting weapons and getting t