Biden: 'Putin’s war of conquest is failing'

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Feb. 20 that "(Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war of conquest is failing."

“Putin thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided,” Biden said, standing alongside President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv's Mariinskyi Palace.

“He thought he could outlast us. I don’t think he’s thinking that right now,” he added. “He’s just been plain wrong,” Biden said of Putin. 

“One year later, the evidence is right here in this room. We stand here together,” Biden said.

Biden made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Feb. 20, his first-ever visit to Ukraine as president. In Kyiv, Biden is meeting with Zelensky.

"The results of this visit will surely be seen, and will surely have repercussions on the battlefield in liberating our territories,” Zelensky said.

Biden pledged an extra $500 million in aid to the country. The assistance package will consist of more military equipment, such as javelins, howitzers, and artillery ammunition.

U.S. President Joe Biden (L) and President Volodymyr Zelensky shake hands during Biden's surprise visit in Kyiv on Feb. 20, 2023. (President's Office)

Biden praised the strength of Ukrainian resistance to the country during his visit to the presidential palace in Kyiv.

"One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands," Biden said.

Biden is visiting Kyiv on the day Ukraine marks the anniversary of the culmination of the EuroMaidan Revolution, a series of anti-government protests in 2013-2014 that ousted a corrupt pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. Over 100 protesters were killed, many of them in a single day, on Feb. 20, 2014.

They are known in Ukraine as the Heavenly Hundred.