US President Joe Biden on Monday paid a surprise visit to Kyiv, where he met his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. Biden announced additional aid worth 500 million dollars for Ukraine and said that new sanctions against Russia were coming this week. Zelensky said he discussed long-range weaponry with Biden. Romanian prime minister Nicolae Ciucă said the visit is very important and conveys a message of solidarity and commitment to further support for Ukraine from the international community, regardless of the situation on the ground. Joe Biden next travelled to Poland, a key US ally, where on Wednesday he will also meet the leaders of Bucharest 9, including Romanian president Klaus Iohannis. Bucharest Nine is a group of NATO countries from Eastern Europe consisting of Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia. The summit is held in the context of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and is aimed at further ensuring the coordination between the US and the allies on NATO’s eastern flank amid the security challenges generated by the war, according to a statement from the Romanian president’s office.
