How Zelensky’s Secret Visit to the U.S. Came Together

“When a U.S. military aircraft landed on the tarmac in Rzeszow, Poland, on Tuesday, the plane crew thought they were picking up the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and a few high-level Ukrainian officials,” the Washington Post reports.

“What they didn’t know, until they saw him exit a U.S. vehicle, was that one of those officials was Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who with American help had just completed a dangerous trip from Bakhmut — the site of some of the war’s bloodiest fighting, more than 400 miles from Kyiv — to the Polish border for a covertly planned visit to Washington.”

“The top-secret planning around Zelensky’s departure underscored the uniquely perilous nature of a visit by a wartime leader who faces daily risks to his life — a top Russian goal, after all, is to destroy the government he heads. But given the astronomical stakes, he and President Biden were eager to meet face-to face, and Zelensky was willing to brave the risks of leaving his country for the first time since the Russian invasion began in February.”