High security and Ukrainian flags for a special day in Washington
A few days before the end of the year holidays, the main arteries of Washington are no longer adorned only with Christmas decorations: for a day and a whirlwind visit by President Zelensky, Ukrainian flags are flying on Wednesday over the capital American.
Closed to traffic, the famous Pennsylvania Avenue, which connects the Capitol to the White House, is adorned with yellow and blue banners flapping in the winter breeze alongside the stars and stripes.
Before his address to the US Congress scheduled for the evening, Volodymyr Zelensky met his counterpart Joe Biden in the famous Oval Office of the White House.
And, in front of the building, it is now impossible to access the emblematic Lafayette Square, which is usually teeming with tourists. Instead, in front of the barriers put in place by the police, televisions from all over the world crowd in the middle of a few demonstrators who have come to show their support for Ukraine.
Wrapped in his country’s flag, Yarema, a 17-year-old Ukrainian student in the United States, says he made the trip to Washington hoping to see President Zelensky and to discover the American capital.
“I came to show my support for our president and for Ukraine,” he told AFP.
Asked what Volodymyr Zelensky should ask Joe Biden, the young man replied: “weapons, weapons, weapons and more weapons”.
– Reinforced security –
Bakhtiar Mendybay, who drove nearly an hour to come to the White House with his children, enthused: “I couldn’t miss this day”.
“I came to welcome the greatest man of our time,” said the 35-year-old Kazakh, who said he hoped for a victory for Ukraine.
“Ukrainians are fighting for everyone including my country, my people; they are standing up against Russian imperialism,” he said with one hand holding a stroller, the other waving a placard on which Volodymyr Zelensky requires more ammo.
Faced with the threats hanging over the visit of the Ukrainian president to Washington, security has been significantly reinforced in the streets of the capital.
Hundreds of police officers, but also of the Secret Service, which protects the high personalities of the American State, were mobilized for this unusual trip of a foreign head of state.
“We are well aware that Russia has agents in this country and could try something,” a Capitol Police official told ABC, before adding, “We know what is at stake.”