After a week of freezing temperatures, Kyiv woke on Monday morning to a perfect blue sky. Spring had arrived. And so had someone else. The centre of the Ukrainian capital with its cobbled streets and ethereal gold-domed churches was mysteriously closed off. The main Zhytomyr Avenue – the route in from the west of the country – was shut too. Even the trains were late.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion a year ago, numerous foreign leaders have come to Kyiv to meet Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. But Monday’s security measures were unprecedented. As videos circulated of a vast cavalcade of vehicles speeding through the centre of the city the rumours reached fever pitch. Could they be true? Sometime after breakfast it turned out they were – Joe Biden was in town, dropping by for an extraordinary visit.
