WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev on Monday, a trip described by media as secret, or even sneaky.
"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," said a report by the Associated Press.
"The next time he turned up -- 20 hours later -- it was in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine," it said.
In the Ukrainian capital, Biden held talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, about the situation on the frontline in Ukraine and announced an additional 500 million U.S. dollars in military aid for Ukraine, which is believed to further escalate the Ukraine crisis.
Addressing a joint press conference with Zelensky, Biden said the new assistance package will consist of missiles for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and Javelin anti-tank missile systems, as well as more military equipment and weapons.
The United States and its allies have already committed nearly 700 tanks and thousands of armored vehicles and 1,000 artillery systems, among other aid to Ukraine, Biden said.
The president's sneaky visit to Kiev came at a time when anti-war sentiment in the United States is soaring. Many Americans are calling on the government to stop fueling the Russia-Ukraine conflict, scale down military spendings and review the role of NATO.
The United States is "completely behind the stoking" of the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and "there's massive warmongering propaganda and, unfortunately, too many people have bought into it," said Cat McGuire, a protester who participated in Sunday afternoon's rally before the Lincoln Memorial at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Noting that the conflict in Ukraine can be ended through diplomacy, Jimmy Dore, an American political commentator and media personality, told the protesters that "our politicians want to enrich weapons manufacturers, so they keep donating to them."
Former U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard blamed the politicians for not serving the people but "their masters in the military-industrial complex," calling on Americans to "set aside our differences and work together to fire those warmongering politicians from both political parties."
The military-industrial complex refers to America's military establishment, as well as the industries involved in weapon production. This union, critics say, produces benefits for both sides: war planners receive the tools necessary for waging war to further interests abroad while defense contractors become the recipients of lucrative deals.
Alex Scholz-Karabakakis, who traveled from Vermont to Washington, D.C., for the anti-war demonstration, underscored that it is a "misconception" that the military-industrial complex serves the United States and protects Americans.
"The United States is playing way too much on the military," Scholz-Karabakakis argued while he accused Washington of "expanding outwards to the borders" of other countries and "creating anxiety, fear around the world."
NATO has also been widely slammed among Americans, who are urging the U.S.-led military bloc to contribute positively to world peace and stability, instead of merely being a troublemaker.
The tragedy in Ukraine "could have easily been avoided if the Biden Admin and NATO had simply acknowledged Russia's legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine becoming a member of NATO," Gabbard once tweeted.
"I feel like NATO has been a force for destruction and aggression since its inception," Scholz-Karabakakis said. "They've been responsible for wars and destruction for decades now and I think that Americans still don't understand the danger that NATO poses for the world."
Eric Reeves, a protester from Texas, echoed the perspective and said that NATO "should be dissolved" and that "the West needs to stop doing what it's doing" -- particularly the United States' continuous delivery of arms to Ukraine -- so that Russia and Ukraine "could work out what they need to work out" and the conflict would end. ■
