The Hill’s Morning Report — Biden visits Kyiv nearly one year into war

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 02/20/23 6:30 AM ET

President Joe Biden walks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral on a surprise visit, in Kyiv, Monday, Feb. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

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Nearly a year into the largest ground war in Europe since World War II, President Biden made a secret trip to besieged Kyiv today in a demonstration of U.S. support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s yearlong invasion.

The visit, which included a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, was unannounced for security reasons before Biden flew again to Poland for meetings in Warsaw, as scheduled (Politico EU and The New York Times).

“One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden said in Kyiv. “Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you and the world stands with you.”

Biden announced half a billion dollars in further aid to Ukraine, “including artillery ammunition, anti-armor systems, and air surveillance radars,” according to a White House statement, and will detail further sanctions “against elites and companies that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine” later this week. Zelensky said today that he and Biden spoke about “long range weapons and the weapons that may still be supplied to Ukraine even though it wasn’t supplied before.”

Biden’s surprise visit comes as world leaders prepare to mark a year on Friday since Ukraine began its defense, and currently, there are no real signs of a way out of the conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin shows no indication of giving in, and Ukraine, which has battled Russian invaders to a standstill, says it’s determined to gain ground during an expected spring offensive.

In Kyiv, Biden said Putin had miscalculated. “He’s just been plain wrong,” he said standing with Zelensky. “One year later, the evidence is right here in this room. We stand here together.”

Neither side appears primed for an outright military victory, and progress at the negotiating table seems just as unlikely (NPR). Ukraine is depending on a brutal ground war and massive ammunition to attain a standstill against Russia, as Kyiv prepares for a spring offensive launched by Moscow (CBS Sunday Morning).

▪ PBS NewsHour: A timeline of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

▪ CNN: Ukraine is burning through ammunition faster than the U.S. and NATO can produce it. Inside the Pentagon’s plan to close the gap.

▪ CBS Sunday Morning: Ukrainians resolute after a year of war.

▪ Reuters: The United Nations will mark the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine by urging “just peace.”

Biden will deliver a speech in Warsaw on Tuesday to commemorate the anniversary of the war in the same place he was last year when he told the world that he believed Putin cannot “remain in power” after visiting refugees near the front lines. Since then, the president has maintained his leadership among NATO allies when it comes to aiding Ukraine, totaling in the billions. He also hosted Zelensky at the White House, a remarkable showing of the two leaders as the world attempts to ice out and thus punish Putin.

On Tuesday, Biden is scheduled to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda before delivering his speech, and on Wednesday will meet with the Bucharest Nine, members of NATO’s eastern flank: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia (The Hill). Meanwhile, the European Union’s foreign affairs council meets in Brussels today and Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, tweeted to thank Estonia for a proposal for “joint direct procurement of arms and ammunition” for Ukraine (The Guardian live blog).

Vice President Harris, speaking to the Munich Security Conference last week, repeated that the U.S. and allies will hold Russia to account for international war crimes and “crimes against humanity” in Ukraine, including alleged torture, rape and murder of adults and children (The Washington Post).

“The United States has formally determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity, and I say to all those who have perpetrated these crimes, and to their superiors, who are complicit in these crimes, you will be held to account,” Harris said.

▪ The Hill: “We consider such insinuations as an attempt, unprecedented in terms of its cynicism, to demonize Russia in the course of a hybrid war, unleashed against us,” said Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov in a statement on the messaging platform Telegram.

▪ CNN: The U.S. evidence of Russian war crimes is “starkly clear,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday.

▪ The Hill: There the U.S. has no timeline for the end of support for Ukraine, White House spokesman John Kirby said.

Though the Russian military has suffered setback after setback, Putin has been far more successful at home; facing little resistance, he has gone further than many thought possible in reshaping Russia in his image. The paranoia, grievances and imperialist mindset that drove Putin to invade have seeped deep into daily life. School children now learn that the Russian military has always liberated humanity from “aggressors who seek world domination,” and any of the activist groups and rights organizations that sprung up in the first 30 years of post-Soviet Russia have met an abrupt end (The New York Times).

But some in Russia fear Putin is leading his nation into a dark period and suggest he needs a military victory to ensure his political survival. “In Russia, loyalty does not exist,” one Russian billionaire told The Washington Post. Business executives and state officials say Putin’s position at the top could prove precarious as doubts over his tactics grow among the elite, and his vision of the country horrifies many, who quietly say the war has been a catastrophic and failed error.

“Among the elite, though they understand it was a mistake, they still fear to do anything themselves,” Boris Bondarev, the only Russian diplomat to publicly quit office over the war, told the Post. “Because they have gotten used to Putin deciding everything.”

CNN: Faint cracks emerge in the facade of Putin’s rule, one year after the Ukraine invasion.

Blinken told CBS News on Saturday that China is actively considering providing lethal support, including weapons and ammunition, to aid Moscow against Ukraine. Blinken over the weekend warned his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, at the Munich Security Conference that there will be U.S.-China consequences if Beijing helps Russia fight the war (CBS News, Al Jazeera and BBC).

“We’ve been concerned from day one about that possibility,” Blinken said on “Face the Nation.” He spoke in general terms about the type of lethal aid China is considering. “There’s a whole gamut of things that — that fit in that category, everything from ammunition to the weapons themselves.”

Related Articles

▪ Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Former President Carter, 98, is receiving hospice care at home in Plains, Ga., The Carter Center said on Saturday. The 39th and longest-lived president has received an outpouring of social media love from around the country.

▪ NPR: U.S. and South Korea reacted to Sunday’s North Korean ballistic missile test with joint military air exercises, also on Sunday. North Korea launched two more missiles off its coast today (Reuters).

▪ CNN: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose possible impeachment is a priority for Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Republicans critical of the administration’s border and migration policies, said during an interview broadcast and streaming on Sunday that he will not resign. DHS hired outside legal representation for the secretary (The Hill).

▪ The Hill: Big Tech regulation, plus student debt forgiveness top a divisive Supreme Court agenda during the next two weeks.

▪ The Hill: Lawmakers have high hopes for a “serious” committee to weigh China issues.

▪ The Hill: Five key questions about the dwindling Social Security Trust Fund.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS

Among Republicans, there’s a lot of impatient toe-tapping, hand-wringing, poll reading, and conversations with donors (and lawyers) well ahead of 2024. The Republican presidential field, officially consisting of former President Trump and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, might by early summer look as long as a conga line. Or maybe not.

Haley’s official entrance could pressure other possible GOP contenders to make up their minds faster than they preferred (The Hill).

Former Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan said on Sunday that he’ll need to decide by spring whether to enter the GOP presidential primary. He told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that if his candidacy would help Trump win the nomination in 2024, “That’d be a pretty good reason to consider not running. Absolutely.”

“I’m a lifelong Republican who wants to support the nominee of the party, whoever that is. However, you know, I’ve said before, I didn’t support Trump, I wouldn’t support Trump,” Hogan said. “I don’t care that much about my future in the Republican Party. I care about making sure we have a future for the Republican Party.”

Republicans in the Senate, nervous about former Trump’s strong lead in presidential primary polls, anticipate that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) will enter the race this spring. There are concerns that the longer he waits, the bigger the GOP primary field will grow, which is viewed as a boon to Trump, The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports.

At a Staten Island event today, DeSantis will be a “special guest” to discuss protecting New York’s “law and order” (Politico).

▪ The Washington Post: Inside the collapse of the Trump-DeSantis “alliance of convenience.”

▪ Mediaite: Trump trashes the New York Post and journalist Salena Zito, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove and former House Speaker Paul Ryan in a burst of DeSantis rage.

▪ The Daily Beast: Woke-obsessed DeSantis took aim at New College of Florida, enrollment 700. They’re about to fight back.

▪ The Hill: DeSantis approval dropped in a GOP primary poll released on Friday.

▪ The Miami Herald: DeSantis surgeon general Joseph Ladapo last week used a state “health alert” to question the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

▪ The Washington Post: In education policy, which DeSantis openly challenges, did politics scrub “systemic” from the advanced placement African American Studies plan?

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) is setting himself up as the liberal answer to DeSantis, advancing progressive policies across a range of culture war issues, including education, abortion rights and gun rights, reports The Hill’s Lexi Lonas. “There is a virulent strain of nationalism plaguing our nation, led by demagogues who are pushing censorship, with a particular attack right now on school board members and library trustees,” Pritzker said last week.

While talking about DeSantis and other potential GOP candidates, Hogan on Sunday said some conservatives who prescribe what can be taught about gender and race in schools sound “autocratic” while backing policies that sound like “big government.” While leading a Democratic-led state, Hogan also was accused of issuing executive orders and school edicts opposed by constituents, including during the pandemic.

Haley’s presidential campaign is just days old, but Democrats are working overtime to figure out how to challenge a female conservative who is the daughter of Indian immigrants, a former governor who preached racial tolerance while assailing Trump and later working beside him (The Hill).

▪ The Hill: Republicans on Haley’s 2024 bid: Don’t rule her out.

▪ The New York Times: Haley walks a treacherous road for GOP women.

▪ Puck News: The Chris Christie ‘24 chaos theory.

▪ The Hill: Special counsel Jack Smith shows signs of ramping up the Justice Department’s Trump investigation.

▪ The Hill: Trump on Wednesday will visit East Palestine, Ohio, site of a train derailment accident that has gained national attention.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ MORE INTERNATIONAL

The United Arab Emirates told the U.N. Security Council that it will not call a vote today on a draft resolution demanding Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory,” according to a note seen by Reuters.

Turkey has ended rescue efforts in all but two provinces, almost two weeks after a massive earthquake killed tens of thousands of people there and in neighboring Syria, the country’s disaster agency said. However, hopes of finding anyone else alive in the rubble are fading fast. The death toll, which this weekend exceeded 46,000, is expected to climb, with about 345,000 apartments in Turkey known to have been destroyed and many people still missing. Neither Turkey nor Syria has said how many people are still unaccounted for. At the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey on Sunday, Blinken announced that the United States would send an additional $100 million to help those affected. The Biden administration pledged $85 million shortly after the quakes (BBC and The Washington Post).

▪ NPR: One Turkish couple’s bedroom walls caved in during the earthquake, forming a tented “V” over their bed. It saved their lives in a six-story apartment building.

▪ Al Jazeera: “Buried alive”: Syrians recount losing family in the earthquakes.

▪ The New York Times: The earthquake’s staggering reconstruction bill will join other economic woes as Turkey’s autocratic leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, faces reelection.

OPINION

■ The problem with Russia is Russia, byOksana Zabuzhko, guest essayist, The New York Times. https://nyti.ms/3xCgMvo

■ Why I’m still trying to figure out what happened to Rudy Giuliani, by Ken Frydman, a former Giuliani press secretary during the 1993 New York mayoral campaign, opinion contributor, MSNBC. “I feel almost duty-bound to use my platform to keep exposing Rudy’s lies.” https://on.msnbc.com/3IB5sWu

WHERE AND WHEN

📲 Ask The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will hold a pro forma session at noon on Tuesday.

The Senate meets in a pro forma session on Tuesday at 11 a.m.

The president landed in Ukraine today for an unannounced visit. He met with Zelensky in Kyiv, delivered a speech about Ukraine’s resistance to Russia after the Feb. 24, 2022, invasion, and announced half a billion dollars of additional U.S. assistance to Ukraine. Biden and Zelensky strolled together in the open air near Kyiv’s St. Michael’s Cathedral. Biden issued a written statement explaining his stop in Kyiv and flight from there to Warsaw, Poland, to meet with President Andrzej Duda, as previously announced.

The secretary of State today is in Turkey and Greece. Blinken met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara and the two held a press conference. The secretary participated in a wreath-laying ceremony in the morning at Anitkabir Mausoleum, followed by a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara. Blinken in the afternoon participates in a chancery dedication and meets with employees and families from the U.S. Mission in Ankara before flying to Athens. In Greece this evening, Blinken is scheduled to attend a working dinner with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

ELSEWHERE

➤ ECONOMY & EMPLOYMENT

During his State of the Union address, Biden mentioned jobs that pay $130,000, even for those who have no advanced degree. The Hill’s Daniel de Visé dug deep into data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to report on 20 high-paying jobs that do not require a college diploma.

Remote work remains a popular trend among employees but not as popular among many bosses as COVID-19 eases as a health emergency. Work-from-home and hybrid work are bargaining chips among elite job hunters. Workers argue they gain improved work-life balances, save money and time and are more productive — and there is evidence they are right (Forbes). The Hill’s Daniel de Visé reports that roughly 30 percent of all work now happens at home, six times the rate of 2019. In Washington, D.C., and other large urban centers, half of all business offices sit empty. Corporate America appears to have settled on a formula of three days out of five of in-office presence.

➤ STATE WATCH

East Palestine, Ohio, residents report splitting headaches, a metallic taste after breathing chemical fumes hanging in the air, dead wildlife and pets, an oily sheen on the surface of stirred-up nearby creeks and waterways and an overabundance of distrust and disgust two weeks after 50 train cars carrying toxic chemicals derailed.

State and rail company officials on Feb. 3 opted for the evacuation of residents and later a controlled release and burning of what was initially described as vinyl chloride and has grown into a list of toxic chemicals that may not be released by federal officials for months (The Guardian).

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) last week said water tests came back indicating it was safe even as he and other officials urged residents to drink bottled water. Lawsuits have been filed and video of rainbow-colored slicks in water near the train derailment raise new concerns about chemical contamination (USA Today).

“People are just angry but they don’t know who to be angry with because we’re not getting enough information to know who to be mad at,” resident Jami Cozza told the Guardian. “‘The air is fine, but don’t go outside. Your water is fine, but drink bottled water.’ You can’t trust them.”

The federal government sent personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (The Hill) and the Environmental Protection Agency to East Palestine beginning last week as the rail accident focused national attention on chemical shipping by rail and truck — and the safety regulations involved.

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D), appearing on CNN on Sunday, blamed “corporate greed,” plus industry lobbying and lax rules for the Northrup Southern derailment and chemical spills (Bloomberg News and Politico).

“You think about just the whole idea if you had to flee your home because a railroad failed to do its job as the executives and their lobbyists get richer and richer and richer. There’s something very wrong with that,” Brown said. “It really strikes you that we’ve a lot to do to fix this, to make rail safer, to fight against lobbyists who keep trying to weaken these rules as they did three or four years ago. That’s our mission, that’s our job.”

Bloomberg Opinion, by Faye Flam: We shouldn’t need body bags to learn from Ohio’s train disaster.

Fires have undermined California’s push to build more affordable housing, a goal set by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and the rest of the state’s Democratic leadership. They’ve made narrowing the gap between rich and poor a political priority, but the state has repeatedly failed to meet its housing goals. Climate change and its consequences are pushing up the price of homes throughout much of the West, as floods and fires carve into existing housing inventory and restrict the amount of land suitable for future building, The Washington Post reports.

It’s not just California. Other Western states face the same changing climate and housing shortages as the spread of the fire threat from a climate in rapid flux curtails options for safe places to build.

▪ CalMatters: Silicon Valley’s vast wealth disparity deepens as poverty increases.

▪ CNN: Here are the U.S. cities where home prices are falling.

As arid Arizona scrambles to quench the thirst of a rapidly expanding population, officials are eying the Sonoran seaside as a potential wellspring for future demand, writes The Hill’s Sharon Udasin. But whether the Mexican state would be on board with this arrangement — and the hefty infrastructure such a project would require — remains to be seen. “I am going to defend the interests of Sonorans. That is my responsibility,” Sonora Gov. Alfonso Durazo said at a recent press conference, describing the plans as “utter absurdity.”

At the core of the project, proposed by Israel-based IDE Technologies, would be a $5 billion desalination plant rooted in the resort city of Puerto Peñasco. While some of the treated water would go to Sea of Cortez coastal towns, much of it would be piped 200 miles north to Phoenix.

▪ High Country News: Could Arizona’s new governor shift Colorado River politics?

▪ The Washington Post: Changes needed to save second-largest U.S. reservoir, experts say.

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH

Health insurance sign-ups through the Affordable Care Act reached record numbers during the most recent enrollment period. Extended subsidies made available through the Inflation Reduction Act are thought to have expanded access to health care, writes The Hill’s Joseph Choi. Over 16.3 million people signed up for coverage through the Affordable Care Act and health care experts are attributing this enthusiasm to subsidies that were established by the American Rescue Plan in 2021 and subsequently extended through the IRA.

▪ The New York Times: To patients, herpes can be devastating. To many doctors, it’s not a priority.

▪ The Atlantic: Wash your hands and pray you don’t get sick. Once a norovirus transmission chain begins, it can be difficult to break.

▪ The Washington Post: “Sleep as medicine,’ or how to make a hospital stay less unhealthy.

When Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) announced last week that he entered a hospital to be treated for clinical depression, politicians of both parties praised him for his openness. Mental health experts say he is a powerful symbol — especially for men, who are less likely to seek treatment for depression and suffer higher rates of suicide (The New York Times).

“We’ve come a long way; people are willing to say they have a diagnosis or that they’re going to therapy,” said former Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.), of the political Kennedy family, who disclosed his treatment for bipolar disorder and drug abuse when he was in Congress. “But we’re still not in a place where people are comfortable saying any more than that. And really the question with Senator Fetterman is: How much is he going to disclose?”

Information about the availability of COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots can be found at Vaccines.gov.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,117,479. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 2,838 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

THE CLOSER

And finally … 🇺🇸 It’s Presidents Day, and for many (but not all, ahem), it’s a holiday.

Federal workers, who have the day off, may recognize it as Washington’s birthday, initially celebrated by soldiers at Valley Forge in 1778 (The Bulwark).

If you’re in the vicinity of the nation’s capital, George Washington’s home on the Potomac River, Mount Vernon, is free to visitors today and Wednesday, his natal day (info HERE).

🦅 For nature lovers, here’s a news alert worth applauding in Washington: Mr. President, a bald eagle, and mate Lotus (Lady of the United States) set up in a new nest in the National Arboretum near the Anacostia River and expect an eaglet in mid-March (The Washington Post).

💳 For those hunting for retail therapy, consumer “malaise” may be your friend for Presidents Day, at least for some bigger-ticket items that aren’t selling as fast as stores would like — including furniture, home appliances, consumer electronics and mattresses (USA Today).

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