Neither the US president in Kyiv nor the two children riding a bicycle in Mikolaiv, in southern Ukraine, flinched at the anti-aircraft alarm that sounded across the country at once.

The two children continued pedaling in a circle and Joe Biden, who was leaving the central monastery of San Miguel accompanied by Volodimir Zelenski, continued walking calmly towards the cars of his entourage.

It was a real coup, and the first time a US president has visited a country at war without US military protection. It was not announced on his agenda – what was planned was a two-day trip to Poland starting today, Tuesday – and he arrived in the Ukrainian capital after a train trip from Polish territory.

Biden declared from Kyiv his “unwavering support” for Ukraine. “A year later, Kyiv resists,” he said at the Mariinsky Palace with the Ukrainian president. “And Ukraine resists. Democracy resists.”

Putin will respond to Biden’s unexpected visit to Kyiv this Tuesday morning, when he delivers his first state of the nation address since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, a year on Friday, invasion and war that the Kremlin continues without call war.

It is a brutal clash, beyond the name, which is assumed to be existential not only by Ukraine. “Our whole life now revolves around the special military operation,” the Russian presidential spokesman said yesterday.

Biden’s trip to Kyiv was secretly planned for months. In order not to attract attention, the president did not fly to Poland on the usual Air Force One but on another plane. Twenty hours after discreetly taking off from Washington, he was already in Kyiv, where he stayed for five hours.

The President of the United States inaugurated his commemorative plaque on the Paseo del Valor, thus adding his name to that of other foreign leaders and citizens who have distinguished themselves for their support for Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion, such as Ursula von der Leyen, Boris Johnson, Mateusz Morawiecki or the Spanish chef José Andrés.

It was Biden who made the final decision to go to Kyiv on Friday, considering that there were risks but that they were manageable. The president came to that conclusion after an extensive meeting Friday in the Oval Office of the White House with his advisers and members of his cabinet.

“When Putin launched his invasion almost a year ago,” Biden said along with Zelensky, “he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought that he would surpass us, but he was totally wrong.

The US president also announced another 500 million dollars in artillery ammunition, howitzers and Javelin missiles, a portable weapon designed to destroy tanks and other heavy vehicles.

And he announced that this week he will impose new sanctions to hit those Russian elites and companies that are helping the Kremlin to avoid sanctions.

Zelenski, for his part, assured that the United States is considering supplying Ukraine with a type of long-range missiles that have not been sent to kyiv so far.

One year after the start of the invasion, Putin will not be able to present to the Federal Assembly today great victories or great territorial gains, apart from those achieved in the first months of fighting. Since July, when they took the Lisichansk stronghold, Russian troops have not captured any major Ukrainian towns. Pessimism is rampant among Russian experts and bloggers.

After receiving Biden’s endorsement, Zelenski met on Monday night with his high command. “The more losses Russia has in the Donbass, the sooner we can end this war with the victory of Ukraine,” he said after the meeting.

The situation on the battlefronts seems to have stalled in a duel in which Ukraine is betting on the wear and tear of Russian troops in the east of the country, the scene of the fiercest fighting in Europe since World War II. “It is important to defend Bakhmut, but not at any price, at the price of everyone dying. We are going to fight as long as it is reasonable (…). We resist and at the same time we are preparing the next counteroffensive,” Zelensky told the Italian press.

It is not clear if the anti-aircraft alarm that sounded throughout Ukraine at the moment Biden was leaving the St. Michael’s Monastery was artificially triggered by one or the other with different objectives: the US president’s trip was, in fact, notified a few hours before by the White House to Moscow.

The truth is that Biden appeared as a shooting star and missiles will continue to fall on children cycling around Ukraine.