‘Operation too close’: How Biden made his surprise visit to Ukraine

The leader of the free world is infiltrating in an active war zone In Ukraine it is not easy.

It took months of secret planning by a handful of officials in the Pentagon, the Secret Service, the intelligence community and the White House. Amanda Sloat, President Biden’s senior adviser on European affairs, told CBS News that an “incredibly small team” was involved in the planning.

“It was a very close process, and I think everyone wants to do everything they can to get the president there and bring him back safely,” Sloat said.

Here’s how they did it:

Before dawn Sunday, Biden and his team boarded an Air Force plane that had painted its shades and sat in the darkened hangar at Joint Base Andrews. Instead of flying the usual 747, Biden flew on a smaller C-32. The aircraft’s call sign was changed from “Air Force One” to “Special Air Mission 60”.

The group traveling with Mr. Biden was kept to a minimum and sworn to secrecy. Instead of the larger group of journalists traveling with the president, two journalists were allowed to document the trip — Wall Street Journal reporter Sabrina Siddiqui and Associated Press photographer Evan Fauci.

The plane made a brief stop in Germany – still overcast – to refuel before turning off the plane’s transponder for the next flight to a Polish air base near the Ukrainian border.

From there, Mr. Biden, his aides, his security services, and the press drove about an hour to Przemyśl Główny train station, located near the borders of Poland and Ukraine. The motorcade of at least 20 vehicles did not use sirens – as the president’s motorcade usually does – to avoid drawing attention to itself.

The procession was stopped by a train whose shadows were also often painted and its passengers embarked on the 10-hour journey to Kiev. Along the way, the train made several stops, at least once to increase security. All the while, American observation flights were watching from Polish airspace.

Two hours before Mr Biden’s arrival in Kiev, the US gave Russia a brief and “very direct” warning by “Channel deconflictionSloat said.

The train set off for Kiev-Pasazhersky Station after sunrise on Monday. US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink waited on the podium for Mr. Biden and his staff.

“It’s good to be back in Kiev,” Biden said after getting off the train.

Mr. Biden then set out on another motorcade to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He spent about six hours in Kiev before heading to the train station in order to 10-hour flight back to Poland.