The Morning Jolt, April 13: “As I mentioned on The Editors podcast, seeing U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson demonstrate real courage by walking the streets of Kyiv alongside Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy made me wish we had a non-geriatric president. But over in The Atlantic, Eliot Cohen points out there’s no reason Secretary of State Antony Blinken or Vice President Kamala Harris couldn’t emulate Johnson’s move. Harris has had a particularly rough start to her term as vice president; if she genuinely wants to reset public perceptions of her, she and her team should head to Kyiv and demonstrate that U.S. leaders aren’t afraid to at least briefly step into a city under siege and dare the Russians to start a war by attacking during her visit.”
The news, today: “Two top U.S. officials will head to Kyiv on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday at a news conference. Zelenskyy, who took questions from Ukranian and international media for more than an hour Saturday, said he will hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin as they travel to Ukraine’s capital city.”
Considering that the presidents or prime ministers of the United Kingdom; Poland; the Czech Republic; Slovenia; Lithuania; Latvia; Estonia; Denmark; Spain; Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer; the president of the European Council; high-ranking Romanian legislators; and two Republicans, Senator Steve Daines of Montana and Representative Victoria Spartz of Indiana have all visited Ukraine in recent weeks, the appearance of administration officials on Ukrainian soil is almost overdue. If the risk is manageable for all of those other leaders, it is hard to believe the risk would be unacceptable for at least a cabinet-level U.S. official.