President Joe Biden barely slept as he rolled in the dark toward Kyiv earlier this week, sitting awake as his curtained-off train car crossed into the warzone that has come to shape so much of his presidency.
Biden will depart Europe three days later having loudly recommitted to backing Ukraine as it enters a second year of conflict, working to cast aside doubts about the durability of American support and directly blaming his counterpart in the Kremlin for thrusting the continent into war.
The 72 hours Biden spent on the ground in Ukraine and Poland have been among the most momentous of his presidency, the culmination both of careful, highly secretive planning by White House aides and the president’s singular, decades-held view of America’s role in the world.
In conversations with aides, foreign counterparts and even by phone with his wife over the course of his visit, Biden has asserted his trip this week was essential in showing the world the US wouldn’t waver in its support.
As Air Force One returns to Washington, however, it is difficult to ignore the looming questions Biden’s visit did little to answer: How and when the war will end.
“There will continue to be hard and very bitter days, victories and tragedies,” Biden said in remarks from the gardens of Warsaw Castle, lit dramatically and crowded with a flag-waving audience of thousands. “But Ukraine is steeled for the fight ahead. And the United States, together with our allies and partners, are going to continue to have Ukraine’s back as it defends itself.”
Biden did not necessarily set out on this week’s trip to provide a better picture of the war’s endgame, nor is he actively nudging the Ukrainians toward the negotiating table with Russia. Indeed, Biden and his aides do not view Russian President Vladimir Putin as anywhere close to seeking a settlement in the war, an…
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