Thread by @dougblandry

Good morning and Happy Washington's Birthday

Oh and Joe Biden went to Kyiv

This is amazing - some notes on the most significant trip of his Presidency thus far:

Starting with, how is "secret trip to Ukraine" compatible with already custom plaques embedded in the masonry? Would love to know how this worked.

(also where does the QR link to?)

https://twitter.com/igornovikov/status/1627626912989192193?s=46&t=NuEAzr_ntrj574HDcyMlEw

Don't worry, the custom plaque guy with the Very Top Secret clearance also does the custom stationery:

https://twitter.com/olkubrakov/status/1627628352734363651?s=46&t=NuEAzr_ntrj574HDcyMlEw

I think the most amazing part, honestly, is that the President's press release went out at 5:07 a.m. and Zelenskyy's team had this two minute video out by 6:30 a.m.:

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1627631915263004672

Here's a shot of the Biden Ukraine motorcade - no time /ability to get his usual cars in, just the second time in the Presidency he's not ridden in the Beast limos or the Suburban equivalent (the other was at Windsor Castle - he rode a UK Range Rover)

https://twitter.com/JimmySecUK/status/1627605388722929665

Also explains why all an extremely heightened amount of U.S. surveillance assets were up over the Poland/Ukraine border:

https://twitter.com/stedur93/status/1627591476094853120

what do we think this message to the Russians looked like?

I bet it was super diplomatic

But in the dramatic interpretation in my head, it was closer to Marine General James Mattis' message to Iraqi tribal leaders in 2003...

With what normally goes into something like this, to see Joe Biden walking openly on the streets of Kyiv in this manner is absolutely mindblowing

https://twitter.com/olliecarroll/status/1627606329996062721

Photos by @berehulak of the NYT

This graf from the New York Times piece cannot be emphasized enough

All those other secret trips to warzones you can think of - were visits to armed American encampments with thousands of *our* troops, and combat hospitals etc

This had none of that.

An actual genuine risk!

As has every other high profile visitor to Kyiv, Joe Biden took the train.

For 10 hours in. And, since he's on it back out now, another 10 hours. A full day.

So roughly 1 in every 462 hours of his presidency has been spent on a UKRAINIAN TRAIN!

(as an aside, there is a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT CHANCE President Biden told the Ukrainian train staff how many times he took the train to Wilmington)

I basically want to associate my thinking with that of "GeorgiaPeach OG Biden Babe 🥁🇺🇸" because it's the correct take:

https://twitter.com/ChrisFromGA68/status/1627666770633842688

workin on a million likes on the first-ever joint head of state instagram post

That this whole deal didn't leak before he APPEARED IN KYIV is so bonkers

1) leave DC undetected
2) fly AF1 to Europe (reminder a UK airplane spotter blew cover on Trump's Iraq trip just by *looking up*)
3) land the world's most famous plane at a Polish airbase
4) TEN hour train

this isn't reported anywhere yet but I bet that POTUS took a C-17 direct from Andrews to the usual base to Rzeszów in eastern Poland, no way they would've been able to hide "regular" AF1 as long

They put a airstream RV inside for the principal to use:

thedrive.com/the-war-zone/c…

He took a dozen or more C-17 rides as VP, but I think this would be the first POTUS flight on one, ever.

VP Harris has done so a few times when her primary aircraft has issues (as recently as 3 days ago back from Munich)

(And a C-17 is where the Hillary texting photo is from)

This AP piece from @ZekeJMiller / @johnleicester / @evanvucci is the best piece focused on the logistics (so far, there will be others)

note that Vucci is the AP photog - don't see them up in the byline everyday

apnews.com/article/russia…

some color learned from that piece:

- Biden actually took a C-32 (the smaller AF1 that he uses often for Wilmington and small airports) from Andrews to refuel at Ramstein in Germany, then onto Poland, so no C-17 after all

- WH folks were surprised the secret held so long

This video of a Ukrainian child in his dinosaur PJs watching the President's motorcade is remarkable

And at 2:14 a.m. ET, this is definitely one of the earlier tweets about the visit overall

https://twitter.com/novostidnua/status/1627567419282583552

we'll find out soon enough exactly what the deal with the planes was...

but there's a "SAM60" callsigned C-32 that's in the air right now from Ramstein to Poland, so I think Biden did leave the USA in the "blue and white" C-32, but switched to the C-17 in Germany

then this plane is on the way to pick him up after the exfiltration train and bring him to Warsaw

I remain in awe of the Ukraine state video team - this is incredibly well done

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1627659113940373507

question asked...and answered, re: where does the QR code on the Joe Biden plaque in Kyiv go:

https://twitter.com/ThisSideOp/status/1627750740788711472

First shot from inside the train (we'll surely be getting more #content now that the President is back in Poland)

Notably this is NOT the same train car that Boris Johnson or Emmanuel Macron and other heads of state have taken

https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/1627785969599410176

surely i am not going to highlight each and every badass behind the scenes pool photo as it's posted?

(yes, i am)

https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/1627801368772722688

The print pooler along for the DC-->Germany-->Rzeszów-->Kyiv-->Warsaw 36 hour odyssey checks in with some personal color:

https://twitter.com/SabrinaSiddiqui/status/1627807850042101762

Lotta stellar above-and-beyond performances today but chief among them:

those pants creases, c'mon man, how you doing that?

46 drip is 24/7 and global

That red-orangish dot under President Biden's foot:

it's evidence that you can go to the craziest, farthest war zone, but someone's advance team - might be ours, might be theirs - is gonna put a toe mark down where they want ya to be.

+ Z's was blue

+ Close up of POTUS too.

The NYTimes has filed what seems to be their semi-final tick-tock type story about the visit. They tied a little prose onto it, too. As in:

nytimes.com/2023/02/20/us/…

Missed this short clip way earlier. I wonder if finally being able to introduce Biden to "his guys" sent Zelenskyy into the land of feels

https://twitter.com/BradBeauregardJ/status/1627639661026852865

The pool reports from the print reporter (@SabrinaSiddiqui) are sent in and blasted to the WH press list - the other reporters then use that color to write their stories

In this thread you can read the original pool dispatches themselves, they're wild:

https://twitter.com/farhip/status/1627882308471517184

Joe Biden couldn't sleep on the train in:

Getting some more behind-the-scenes photos out of the Ukraine side - including President Biden's autograph of this mini poster

(and probably other VIP leaders they carry often - the poster does not strike me as made for Biden)

[h/t @kentgray1]

https://twitter.com/igornovikov/status/1627783046249185280

The president of Ukrainian Railways, @Akamyshin, a big tweeter, published a short thread about putting together what they're calling Rail Force One.

He noted that some other trains were delayed to make way for the special train

[h/t @SamuelMcLelland]

https://twitter.com/AKamyshin/status/1627957152408125440