US President Joe Biden on Thursday announced his readiness to make a trip to Ukraine, the White House press pool said.
“Yes,” the president said, answering the question whether he was ready to go to Ukraine.
At the same time, the president noted that the US administration is currently “making a decision” about a possible trip of high-ranking representatives of the US authorities to Ukraine.
Earlier, Politico reported, citing sources, that the US administration was conducting internal discussions about sending a high-ranking US official to Kyiv in order to demonstrate support for Ukraine. The most likely candidates for a trip to Kyiv may be US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken or Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
The administration is also considering the candidacies of the US President himself and US Vice President Kamala Harris.
Politico’s interlocutors noted that if the administration decides to send someone to Kyiv, there will be no advance announcement of the trip for security reasons.
The White House calls on the Americans in Ukraine to leave the country within the next 24-48 hours, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said at a briefing on Friday.
“We are continuing to reduce the size of our embassy footprint in Kyiv. And I want to take a moment to echo what both President Biden and Secretary Blinken have already said: We encourage all American citizens who remain in Ukraine to depart immediately,” he said at a briefing at the White House.
“Any American in Ukraine should leave as soon as possible, and in any event, in the next 24 to 48 hours,” Sullivan said.
He added that Washington would not send troops to Ukraine to evacuate citizens.
“If you stay, you are assuming risk with no guarantee that there will be any other opportunity to leave and no prospect of a U.S. military evacuation in the event of a Russian invasion,” Sullivan said.
Earlier this week, a White House official said that the United States was not planning a mass evacuation of American citizens from Ukraine with the help of the military, and Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed that the U.S. military deployed to Europe, if necessary, could help in the evacuation of American citizens without appearing on Ukrainian territory.
On Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is paying a working visit to the United States.
The leaders’ talks are scheduled for 21:00 Kyiv time (14:00 local time) in the Oval Office of the White House, according to the public schedule of the U.S. President. The next event in Biden’s schedule is the weekly economic briefing at 4:30 p.m., which means that the presidents of the United States and Ukraine will not hold a joint briefing on the results of the talks.
The White House on Wednesday, September 25, posted the transcript of a conversation between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that took place on July 25, 2019.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s name appears several times in the text of the document. At the same time, the document indicates that the document was compiled based on notes taken by White House employees who were present in Trump’s office during the conversation.
The Trump-Zelensky conversation has received a much attention in American media.
