TALLINN, Estonia (AP) – Russian officials and state media downplayed U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Ukraine on Monday, portrayed Kiev as a U.S. puppet and said Moscow’s forces would expand despite Washington’s promise to put more weapons into the country to send to Ukraine, enforce.
Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Ukrainian capital to show Western solidarity with a country that, days before the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, continues to wage what he called a “brutal and unjustified war”.
The visit also came on the eve of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s State of the Union address, which some in Russia are hoping will set the tone for next year, including Ukraine’s deadlocked election campaign.
Biden spent more than five hours in Kyiv, where he consulted with Zelenskyy on next steps, paid tribute to soldiers killed in action and visited US embassy staff.
He announced a new package of $500 million in US aid – in addition to the more than $50 billion already provided – for howitzer shells, anti-tank missiles, air surveillance radar and other aid, but no new advanced weapons.
Russian state television covered the visit extensively, with presenters saying it was clear that Biden was “running things” in Ukraine, which fits with the Kremlin’s narrative that the Zelesnkyy government is a US puppet.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in the occupied Zaporizhia region, said Zelenskyi “looked like a servant next to Biden”.
Noting that Biden could seek re-election in 2024, other commentators said his visit to Kiev kick-started his campaign.
“Biden started his campaign in Kyiv in the most heroic of circumstances to prove to the whole world that he can still ‘do it like old times,'” Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev said on Telegram, adding that “Kiev was given no choice but to lead the people on a senseless killing spree as part of Biden’s campaign.”
Pro-Kremlin experts on state television also claimed Biden received security guarantees from Moscow before the visit. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the US government briefed Moscow on Biden’s visit to Kiev shortly before his departure from Washington “for détente purposes” to prevent any misperception that could put the two nations in direct conflict could bring.
“Everyone knows that when Russia says that it will not attack Kiev during the visit of some statesmen, it means that this will never happen because we are the ones who keep our word, the ones who are on the side of the good and the civilized .” said pro-Kremlin political scientist Sergei Markov on a political talk show on state TV channel Russia 1.
Vice President of the Russian Security Council and former President Dmitry Medvedev also claimed on Telegram that Biden received “security guarantees”.
Medvedev said Biden had “sworn allegiance to the neo-Nazi regime” – as Kremlin officials call the Ukrainian government – and promised him more guns, but the millions leaving Ukraine are “answering the question of who owns the future”.
And state TV journalist Andrei Medvedev said on Telegram: “Will this visit affect the final outcome of the war? No”, although he admitted that this would affect “the course of hostilities at this time and the morale of Ukrainian citizens”.
Political scientist Tatyana Stanovaya said the Kremlin will view Biden’s visit as “further evidence that the United States has bet on Russia’s strategic defeat in the war and that the war itself has irrevocably become a war between Russia and the West.”
Stanovaya said Putin’s speech on Tuesday was probably “very tough, aimed at defiantly severing ties with the West,” but after Biden’s visit to Kiev, “changes can be made to make it even tougher.”