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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was ushered into America amid a meticulously detailed top-secret operation.
The safety of the leader was paramount ahead of his meeting with US President Joe Biden.
A top-secret fleet of NATO spy planes and fighter jets were deployed to escort Mr Zelensky to Washington, MailOnline reports.
He was flown on a US Boeing C-40 Clipper across the Atlantic – in a journey shrouded in secrecy to avoid any Russian sabotage.
Broadcasters in Poland had also spotted Mr Zelensky walking down a train platform, surrounded by servicemen, in a nightly stopover before the flight.
The White House had consulted heavily with the Ukrainian President’s team ahead of the trip from Europe to the States.
Conversations included potential risk of Russian action, but a spokesperson declined to detail the exact measures taken to safeguard the politician.
The official did add, however, that the US expected the Kremlin to continue its attacks on Ukrainian forces and civilian infrastructure targets despite the trip.
In this video grab taken from a footage by Polish broadcast TVN24, Volodymyr Zelensky walks on a train platform surrounded by servicemen (Picture: TVN24/AFP)
The Ukrainian leader was flown on a US Boeing C-40 Clipper across the Atlantic (Picture: Flighttracker)
Mr Zelensky, in a speech to Congress yesterday, said money given to Ukraine in aid is ‘not charity’ but an ‘investment’ in global security and democracy.
The whirlwind stop in Washington – his first known trip outside his country since Russia invaded in February – was aimed at reinvigorating support for his country in the US and around the world.
Mr Zelensky called the tens of billions of dollars in US military and economic assistance provided over the past year vital to Ukraine’s efforts to beat back Russia and appealed for even more in the future.
Just before his arrival, the US announced a new 1.8 billion dollar – £1.5 billion – military aid package, including for the first time Patriot surface-to-air missiles.
US President Joe Biden (R) and First Lady Jill Biden (L) welcome President Zelensky (Picture: EPA)
The speech to Congress came after President Biden hosted Mr Zelensky in the Oval Office for strategy consultations, saying the US and Ukraine would maintain their ‘united defence’ as Russia wages a ‘brutal assault on Ukraine’s right to exist as a nation;.
The highly sensitive trip came after 10 months of a brutal war that has seen tens of thousands of casualties on both sides and devastation for Ukrainian civilians.
Mr Zelensky spent less than 10 hours in Washington before beginning the journey back to Ukraine.
The visit had been long sought by both sides, but the right conditions only came together in the last 10 days, US officials said, after high-level discussions about the security both of the Ukrainian leader and the citizens he would be leaving behind.
In his remarks to Congress, Mr Zelensky had harked back to US victories in the Battle of the Bulge, a turning point against Nazi Germany in the Second World War, and the Revolutionary War Battle of Saratoga, an American victory that helped draw France’s aid for US independence.
The Ukrainian leader predicted that next year would be a ‘turning point’ in the conflict, ‘when Ukrainian courage and American resolve must guarantee the future of our common freedom – the freedom of people who stand for their values’.
He received thunderous applause from members of Congress and presented politicians with a Ukrainian flag autographed by front-line troops in Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s contested Donetsk province.
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He was flown on a US Boeing C-40 Clipper across the Atlantic – in a journey shrouded in secrecy to avoid any Russian sabotage.
