Pure propaganda, but let’s talk Kyiv

The surprise visit yesterday by US President Joe Biden to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, was a calculated propaganda coup and in the mould of some of his predecessors in the White House.

President John Kennedy went to Berlin in 1963, as the Cold War got chillier, to proclaim solidarity: “Ich bin ein Berliner (I am a Berliner).”

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood near the Brandenburg Gate, facing the Berlin Wall, and told the then head of the Soviet Union: “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Interestingly, these photo opportunities have all been targeted at first the Soviet, then the Russian Bear.

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Biden’s visit was similarly about the optics – and the message Washington wanted to convey, on the eve of the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was that the US still backs Kyiv.

That backing is more than symbolic, as both America and the European Union countries have stepped up their arms shipments to Ukraine, as Russia reportedly prepares another offensive.

Ukraine has become a charnel house with neither side looking like being victorious, but with the West accusing Moscow of war crimes and of targeting civilians.

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Surely it has become obvious to all that this bloody stalemate cannot continue. Isn’t it time to talk?