Biden’s Kyiv surprise

President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv to emphasize US support for Ukraine. [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Many Sundays you will find US President Joe Biden going to church and then spending time with his family. Yesterday he headed for Ukraine. Biden pulled off a surprise visit to Kyiv that was cloaked in secrecy until after he’d met with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy today. But pictures started to surface of the pair walking along a street near the famous St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral. Key reading: - [Biden Visits Kyiv in Surprise Wartime Trip Amid Air Raid Alerts]( - [Ukraine’s Allies Are Working Through the Consequences of the Long War Ahead]( - [US Plans New Russia Export Controls, Sanctions on Key Industries]( - [Joint Ammo Purchases for Ukraine Gain Traction Among EU Members]( - Follow our rolling coverage of the war in Ukraine [here](. Dressed in a heavy coat and wearing his trademark aviator sunglasses, Biden experienced what residents of the capital frequently endure — air raid sirens going off. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine almost at the one-year mark, and expected to go on for some time in a grinding war of attrition, Biden’s presence provides both a morale boost for Ukrainians and a signal of outside support for the country. He is one of the last major allies to have made the trip since Feb. 24, 2022. It comes as Ukraine frets about whether unity will hold in a protracted conflict, as countries face their own problems at home including economic challenges. Countries have pledged to send advanced battle tanks but that is at least several months off and some are foot-dragging on the timeline. Republicans in the US are making noises querying open-ended financial support. While Biden announced yet another package of military aid in the works including artillery and radars, it does not include the very long-range weapons or fighter jets that Zelenskiy has been agitating for. Biden’s trip is a warning also to Russia, coming on the eve of a major address by President Vladimir Putin to lawmakers. At the same time the US is raising concerns that China may start showing tangible support for Russia, including supplying it with lethal military aid, with top Chinese envoy Wang Yi visiting Moscow this week. The American president’s visit will provide a rallying moment for Ukrainians after a year of devastation. But the reality is the country faces dark days ahead, and the boost may prove fleeting. — [Rosalind Mathieson]( Biden and Zelenskiy in Kyiv today. Photographer: Dimitar Dilkoff/Getty Images Coming Soon: Understand power in Washington through the lens of business, government and the economy. Find out how the worlds of money and politics intersect in the US capital. [Sign up now for the new Bloomberg Washington newsletter](, delivered Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. And if you are enjoying this newsletter, sign up [here](. Global Headlines Tense exchange | China and the US seem to be trapped in an acrimonious cycle of finger wagging that risks engulfing its partners and allies. The meeting between top diplomats from Beijing and Washington at a security conference in Munich this past weekend was meant to represent a détente of sorts. Instead, as [Courtney McBride]( reports, it dissolved into a [fiery exchange]( over China’s relationship with Russia. - China and the European Union [should prepare]( for a meeting of their leaders, Beijing’s top foreign policy official said, a sign of the Asian nation’s efforts to court Europe amid worsening ties with the US. - North Korea [fired a barrage]( of suspected ballistic missiles and issued a warning to the US over joint military exercises, less than two days after Pyongyang launched a long-range rocket designed to hit the American mainland. Nuclear threshold | International atomic monitors in Iran last week detected [uranium enriched]( to 84% purity, just below that needed for a nuclear weapon, two senior diplomats said. As [Jonathan Tirone]( explains, it’s the second time this month suspicious enrichment-related activities have been discovered, underscoring the risk that Tehran’s unrestrained atomic activities could prompt a new crisis. Brexit challenge | UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces the [biggest]( political test of his premiership as he prepares to unveil a deal with the EU that risks a stand-off with Northern Ireland unionists and members of his own Conservative Party. A solution to the impasse in Northern Ireland may go some way to allowing Britain to reset relations with the EU more than three years after Brexit. - Then-Premier Boris Johnson’s divorce deal with the EU handed Northern Ireland an [advantage]( — keeping one foot in the bloc’s single market and the other in Britain’s — that has paid economic dividends, if not political ones. Best of Bloomberg Opinion - [China May Not Be Fighting in Ukraine But It’s Losing: Minxin Pei]( - [Can Any Amount of Money Turn the Fertility Tide?: Gearoid Reidy]( - [We Can Vacuum the Sky. Will It Make a Difference?: Lara Williams]( Toxic disaster | The citizens of the rural Ohio town of East Palestine are still coming to terms with the aftermath of a Feb. 3 crash involving a Norfolk Southern freight train that spilled a [soup of toxic chemicals]( and forced an evacuation. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown yesterday blamed corporate greed for safety lapses, while the White House is facing [a political crisis]( over its response to the disaster. Explainers you can use - [Why Australia Plans to Vote on an Indigenous ‘Voice’]( - [The $100 Billion Offshore Wind Industry Has a Whale Problem]( - [Why Bulgaria Abandoned Its Goal to Join Euro in 2024]( Cash crisis | Nigeria’s ruling party is split over the government’s drive to replace high-denomination banknotes that has disrupted life and [sparked protests]( in Africa’s most populous country. At least 10 state governors have gone to the Supreme Court to challenge the plan, which has pitted outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari against Bola Tinubu, his party’s candidate in Feb. 25 elections who backs keeping old notes in circulation for longer. Bloomberg TV and Radio air Balance of Power with [David Westin]( on weekdays from 12 to 1pm ET, with a second hour on Bloomberg Radio from 1 to 2pm ET. You can watch and listen on Bloomberg channels and online [here](. News to Note - Group of Seven nations and the EU are discussing ways to track [Russian diamonds]( across borders, a move that could pave the way for restrictions on their trade, sources say. - A Chinese professor has been [suspended]( by his university after a talk he gave at a school prompted an outburst from a student who accused him of worshiping the West. - The LGBTQ communities in Europe and central Asia faced increasingly violent and deadly [planned attacks]( in 2022. - Public support for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida [edged down]( slightly in an opinion poll, after a former aide made discriminatory remarks regarding the LGBTQ community this month. - West Africa bloc, Ecowas, [maintained sanctions]( against the military leadership in Mali and Guinea and added a travel ban against Burkina Faso’s rulers as fears grow over of a band of countries under military rule stretching across the Sahel region. Thanks to the 51 people who answered the Friday Pop quiz and congratulations to Lou Chodosh, who was the first to name the Philippines as the country that protested a Chinese ship’s aiming of a military grade laser at one of its vessels. And finally ... Presidents are tweeting about them, the US State Department is recruiting experts in the field, and they’ve become the focus of tensions between nations as well as an unlikely currency of diplomacy. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine brought the realization that the world relies on just a few nations for most of its fertilizers, notably Russia, China and Belarus. [Read]( how that’s pushed crop nutrients to the top of the political agenda as the world wakes up to its strategic dependency on a key determinant of food security. An employee measures the concentration of harmful gases in an underground potash mine in Perm region, Russia, in 2017. Source: Bloomberg Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? 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