President Joe Biden’s motorcade slipped out of the White House around 3:30 a.m. Sunday. No big, flashy Air Force One for this trip -– the president vanished into the darkness on an Air Force C-32, a modified Boeing 757 normally used for domestic trips to smaller airports.The next time he turned up — 20 hours later — it was in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine.Biden’s surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday was the first time in modern history that a U.S.
leader visited a warzone outside the aegis of the U.S. military — a feat the White House said carried some risk even though Moscow was given a heads-up.Over the next five hours, the president made multiple stops around town — ferried about in a black SUV rather than the presidential limousine — without any announcement to the Ukrainian public that he was there.
But all that activity attracted enough attention that word of his presence leaked out well before he could get back to Poland, which was the original plan.
Aides at the White House were surprised the secret held as long as it did.US President Joe Biden (C-L) walks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (C-R) at St.