ac 360 starts now. good evening. president biden is in poland tonight after making a surprise and history-making journey to kyiv on this president s day. after months of secret planning and elaborate preparation, the united states met with ukraine s president just four days short of a year since russian forces invaded. and with reminders of the continuing threat surrounding the two leaders. [ siren ] many american presidents have made dramatic trips before, nixon to china, kennedy, reagan to is the berlin wall, and presidents have visited u.s. troops in war zones, but never like this. this was the first trip ever by an american president would into a war zone without the protection of u.s. troops on the ground or american warplanes patrolling the space overhead. american air assets were active on ukraine s border and moscow was told about it in advance. as for the president s own message, here is some of what he had to say. it was one year ago in week that we spoke on t
analyst and chief of russia operations steve hall. steve, what kind of impact do you think the president s visit to ukraine may have on vladimir putin or his reaction to it? well, first, this is a huge, huge deal for the ukrainians. i ve never served in any place where the seniors in that particular government said hey, is there any way we can get the american president? this is political currency. it s political capitalist. for ukraine this is like if beyonce were playing at your high school prom. it s a huge deal for them. and it s a big boost. like beyonce playing at your high school prom if your high school prom was under attack. and that s the other side of it. first of all, it bolsters everybody s the morale in ukraine, not just the citizens, but the soldiers fighting it. and it s a huge blow to vladimir putin. he s got to be pretty upset about this on the verge of a big speech he is going to make tomorrow. so it will be interesting to see what putin comes octuplet with,