US gave Russia advance notice of Biden's visit to Ukraine: White House

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US provided Russia with advance notice that President Joe Biden would visit Ukraine to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia's war on the country, the White House said on Monday.

The notification was intended as "deconfliction," the White House said, using a term that refers to efforts that seek to prevent an unintended conflict between the world's nuclear superpowers.

"We did notify the Russians that President Biden would be traveling to Kyiv. We did so some hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on a conference call.

Sullivan declined to characterize the Russians' response, citing the "sensitive nature of those communications."

Biden paid an unannounced, but widely speculated, visit to the Ukrainian capital earlier on Monday in which he announced an additional $500 million military aid package for Kyiv, met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and paid tribute to Ukrainian forces who died fighting against Russia's invasion.

The visit comes two months after Zelenskyy traveled to Washington to meet Biden at the White House and lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

For his part, Zelenskyy said negotiations between himself and Biden were very fruitful and that its results will be reflected "on the battlefield."

"We have also talked about long-range weapons and the weapons that may still be supplied to Ukraine even though it wasn’t supplied before," he said.