The aircraft crew believed they would pick up the US soldiers stationed in the Ukraine as well as a few senior Ukrainian officials when a US military aircraft touched down on the roll field in Polish Rzeszów on Tuesday.
They were unaware that one of these officials was the President of the Ukraine, Wolodymyr Selenskyj, who had just returned from a perilous journey from Bakhmut, the scene of some of the bloodiest battles of the war, more than 400 miles from Kiev, to the Polish border for a domestically scheduled visit to Washington, until they saw him exiting a US vehicle.
The highly classified plans surrounding Selenskyj’s departure ignore the extraordinary danger of visiting a war commander who faces daily threats to his life because, in the end, it is a top Russian objective to kill SelenskyjRegierung, die er leitet, zu zerstören. Aber angesichts der astronomischen Einsätze waren er und Präsident Biden begierig darauf, sich persönlich zu treffen, und Selenskyj war bereit, das Risiko einzugehen, sein Land zum ersten Mal seit Beginn der russischen Invasion im Februar zu verlassen.
