继乔·拜登总统之后周一突访乌克兰首都基辅他的政府的高级成员详细介绍了导致决定进行访问的安全讨论，以及拜登在大约五个小时的时间里与乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽伦斯基(Volodymyr Zelenskyy)的会晤内容。
虽然官员们对管理此行所需的确切安全细节仍守口如瓶，包括拜登进出这个饱受战争蹂躏的国家的交通方式，但他们确实表示，美国在拜登前往乌克兰前不久通知了俄罗斯这次访问。
“我们确实通知了俄罗斯，拜登总统将前往基辅。为了避免冲突，我们在他离开前几个小时就这么做了，”总统国家安全顾问杰克·沙利文(Jake Sullivan)在周一上午的新闻发布会上告诉记者。
“由于这些交流的敏感性，我不会谈论他们是如何回应的，也不会谈论我们传达的信息的确切性质。但我可以确认，我们提供了通知，”沙利文说。
美国副国家安全顾问约翰·范恩(John Finer)说，这次访问的计划非常微妙，几个月前就开始了。
范恩说，华盛顿各部门的“只有少数人”参与其中，包括白宫办公厅主任办公室、国家安全委员会、白宫军事办公室、五角大楼、特勤局和情报部门。
范恩说:“总统在计划的每个阶段和任何潜在的紧急情况下都得到了充分的简报，然后在周五与椭圆形办公室和他的国家安全内阁的一些关键成员进行了电话磋商后，做出了最终的决定。”。
政府官员说，与总统们访问过的其他战区相比，此次访问面临的挑战之一是美国军队和大使馆在乌克兰的存在有限。
“与以往的访问不同...像伊拉克和阿富汗一样，美国显然没有在乌克兰的地面军事存在，这使得在任总统的访问更加具有挑战性。但这是乔·拜登想要冒的风险，”白宫通讯联络主任凯特·贝丁菲尔德说。
政府官员强调，这一风险是战略性的，旨在向俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京表明，美国坚定地支持乌克兰，并对乌克兰的军事实力有足够的信心，可以在战争时期访问首都，即俄罗斯首次入侵一年后。
沙利文说:“他(拜登)在基辅想做的是发出一个明确无误的信息，即美国将永远支持乌克兰。”。
沙利文说:“还能够在自由的基辅站在泽伦斯基总统旁边，不仅仅是告诉，而是通过强有力的证明向世界表明，乌克兰正在成功地抵抗俄罗斯的侵略，俄罗斯正在乌克兰遭受战略失败。”
当被问及五角大楼或其他官员是否有安全问题时，沙利文拒绝透露规划对话，但表示拜登是根据他的安全团队的陈述做出决定的。
沙利文说:“总统满怀信心地着手进行，他的安全团队有能力将风险控制在可管理的水平。”。"这是最终导致他打电话离开的原因。"
“我不会详细说明谁在总统办公室对他说了什么，尤其是像他的安全这样敏感的事情。我只想说，他得到了一份非常好和非常有效的行动安全计划的完整介绍。他听了那个报告。他对风险可控感到满意，”沙利文说。
在基辅，拜登在马林斯基宫会见了泽伦斯基和乌克兰第一夫人奥莱娜·泽伦斯卡，参观了基辅市中心的圣迈克尔金顶大教堂，并在纪念俄罗斯-乌克兰冲突中遇难者的墙上献了花圈，此时空袭警报响起。
拜登还宣布了另外5亿美元的援助，预计他将在周二晚上从波兰发表的演讲中进一步详细说明这一点。
据沙利文说，在从当地时间上午8点左右持续到下午1点的访问中，泽伦斯基和拜登就“正在进行的战争的所有方面”进行了长时间的交谈，包括战场、人道主义援助、能源基础设施和经济支持。
拜登还听取了泽伦斯基团队成员的简报，以了解维持乌克兰的努力还需要什么。
关于是否讨论了F-16战斗机这是泽伦斯基长期以来一直寻求的，沙利文不会进入讨论的细节，尽管拜登和泽伦斯基在基辅的公开讲话中指出，美国不会提供乌克兰以前没有收到的任何新弹药。
“我要说的是，在这个问题上进行了很好的讨论。我认为，两位总统都阐述了他们对最近和过去几个月媒体上出现的一些不同能力的看法。我会就此打住，”沙利文说。
幕后行程细节公布
拜登返回波兰后，与总统同行的联合记者分享了他从白宫到欧洲的秘密旅程的一些细节。
空军一号于周日黎明前的黑暗中启程前往德国，在拉姆施泰因空军基地加油一个多小时。
从那里，拜登飞往波兰的Rzeszów-Jasionka机场，然后登上火车，开始了10个小时的旅程。在当地时间上午8点左右抵达基辅之前，这列火车的八节车厢中的大部分都被严密的安保人员占据。
拜访完泽伦斯基后，拜登乘坐类似的火车返回波兰，回到北约领土。
US alerted Russia of Biden's surprise trip to Ukraine hours before he arrived, officials say
Following President Joe Biden's surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Monday, senior members of his administration detailed the security discussions that led up to the decision to go on the trip and the content of the meetings Biden had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the course of his roughly five hours in the city.
And while the officials remained tight-lipped about the precise security details required to manage the trip, including Biden's mode of transportation in and out of the war-torn country, they did say that the U.S. informed Russia of the visit shortly before Biden left for Ukraine.
"We did notify the Russians that President Biden would be traveling to Kyiv. We did so some hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes," Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser to the president, told reporters on Monday morning in a press briefing.
"Because of the sensitive nature of those communications, I won't get into how they responded or what the precise nature of our message was. But I can confirm that we provided that notification," Sullivan said.
The planning for the trip was incredibly delicate, said John Finer, the U.S. deputy national security adviser, and began months prior.
"Only a handful of people" from offices across Washington were involved, including the White House chief of staff's office, the National Security Council, the White House Military Office, the Pentagon, the Secret Service and the intelligence community, Finer said.
"The president was fully briefed on each stage of the plan and any potential contingencies and then made the final go- or no-go decision after a huddle in the Oval Office and by phone with some key members of his national security cabinet on Friday," Finer said.
Among the challenges around such a visit was the limited U.S. military and embassy presence in Ukraine, compared to other war zones that presidents have visited, administration officials said.
"Unlike previous visits ... like Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. obviously does not have a military presence on the ground in Ukraine which made a visit from a sitting president all the more challenging. But this was a risk that Joe Biden wanted to take," White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said.
The administration officials emphasized that the risk was strategic -- intended to show Russian President Vladimir Putin that the U.S. stands strong with Ukraine and is confident enough in Ukraine's military prowess to visit the capital city in a time of war, one year after Russia first invaded.
"What he [Biden] wanted to do in Kyiv was to send a clear, unmistakable message of enduring American support for Ukraine," Sullivan said.
"And also to be able to stand there next to President Zelenskyy in a free Kyiv to not just tell, but to show the world through a powerful demonstration that Ukraine is successfully resisting Russian aggression and Russia is suffering strategic failure in Ukraine," Sullivan said.
Asked whether there were security concerns from the Pentagon or other officials, Sullivan declined to share the planning conversations but said that Biden made the decision based on presentations from his security team.
"The president proceeded with the confidence that his security team was able to bring risks to a manageable level," Sullivan said. "That was what ultimately led him to make the call to go."
"I am not going to get into specifics of who said what to him in the Oval, particularly on things as sensitive as his security. I will just say that he got a full presentation of a very good and very effective operational security plan. He heard that presentation. He was satisfied that the risk was manageable," Sullivan said.
While in Kyiv, Biden met with Zelenskyy and Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska at Mariinsky Palace, visited St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral in central Kyiv and laid a wreath at the Wall of Remembrance for those slain in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, just as air raid sirens sounded.
Biden also announced another $500 million in aid, which he's expected to further detail in a speech on Tuesday night from Poland.
During the visit, which lasted from around 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. local time, Zelenskyy and Biden had an extended conversation about "all aspects of the ongoing war," according to Sullivan, including the battlefield, humanitarian aid, energy infrastructure and economic support.
Biden was also briefed by members of Zelenskyy's team to understand what would be needed to sustain Ukraine's efforts "and then some."
Regarding whether F-16 fighter jets were discussed -- which Zelenskyy has long sought -- Sullivan would not get into the specifics of the discussion, though Biden and Zelenskyy noted in their public remarks from Kyiv that the U.S. wasn't sending any new ammunition that Ukraine hasn't received before.
"What I will say is that there was a good discussion on the subject. I think the two presidents both laid out their perspectives on a number of different capabilities that have been thrown around in the press both recently and over the course of several months. And I will leave it at that," Sullivan said.
Behind-the scenes trip details released
Upon Biden's return to Poland, the pool reporter with the president shared some details of his secret journey from the White House to Europe.
Air Force One departed in the pre-dawn darkness on Sunday for Germany, where it refueled at Ramstein Air Base for a little over an hour.
From there, Biden flew to Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport in Poland before boarding a train for a 10-hour journey. Most of the train's eight cars were occupied by a heavy security presence before arriving in Kyiv around 8 a.m. local time.
After visiting with Zelenskyy, Biden took a similar train ride back to Poland, returning to NATO territory.
