Darkened plane, silent overnight train: how Biden got to Kyiv

 President Joseph Biden's unexpected trip to war-torn Kyiv on Monday began in the middle of the night in a military airport hangar outside of Washington.

Unbeknownst to the international media, the Washington political system, or American voters, the 80-year-old Democrat boarded an Air Force Boeing 757, also known as a C-32, around 4:00 am (0900 GMT) on Sunday.

The jet, a scaled-down version of the one US presidents typically fly on overseas visits, was parked a good distance from Biden's usual boarding location. The shades on every window had been lowered, which is another telltale clue.

Biden left for a conflict zone fifteen minutes later with a small group of security guards, a tiny medical crew, trusted advisers, and two journalists who had been sworn to silence.

The US president is arguably the subject of the most frequent scrutiny.

Biden is followed by the media everywhere he goes, including to church and world conferences. He records, transcripts, and publishes every word he says in public.

But, in this instance, only one photographer and one writer were included in the normal pool of reporters, which for international travel would normally include 13 journalists from radio, TV, picture, and written press organisations.

When the White House gave the reporter from The Wall Street Journal permission to publish the information, Sabrina Siddiqui disclosed that she and the photographer had been called to Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington at 2:15 a.m.

Their phones were taken away, and they weren't allowed to get them back until Biden arrived in the Ukrainian capital approximately

To refuel, they made the roughly seven-hour flight from Washington to the American military installation in Ramstein, Germany. Again, the window coverings were left in place, and they did not exit the aircraft.

The subsequent flight arrived in Poland at Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport. Although this airport is in Poland, the US-led campaign to arm the Ukrainians has turned it into a global hub, supplying them with millions of dollars' worth of arms and ammunition.

It's nice to be back.

Siddiqui and the photographer, Evan Vucci of the Associated Press, had not yet seen Biden in person. That remained the same when they arrived at the airport or into an SUV motorcade.

Usually, reporters accompanying Biden travel in motorcades, but something was quite different