“I invite all friends of Ukraine to visit Kyiv,” Mr. Zelensky has said on social media. “It can be dangerous here. It is true. Because our sky is not yet closed to Russian missiles and planes.”

That is part of an aggressive, imaginative, and effective public information campaign by Zelensky to garner global support for his country through frequent posts on myriad social media.

Appearing unshaven in a military sweater, Zelensky has addressed, via video, numerous bodies, including Parliament, the U.S. Congress, and the European Commission, appealing for more equipment and a no-fly zone.

To Western eyes, it’s an appealing contrast to the authoritarian Putin hunkered down in the Kremlin, firing generals or addressing puppet bodies with angry words and sullen threats.

Johnson, too, used social media on Ukraine:

Today I met my friend President @ZelenskyyUa in Kyiv as a show of our unwavering support for the people of Ukraine. We’re setting out a new package of financial & military aid which is a testament of our commitment to his country’s struggle against Russia’s barbaric campaign.

A British spokesman added:

The prime minister has travelled to Ukraine to meet President Zelensky in person, in a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people. They will discuss the UK’s long-term support to Ukraine and the PM will set out a new package of financial and military aid.

This is expected to include another $136 million in military aid, including body armor, night-vision goggles, heavily-armored Mastiff vehicles, 800 anti-tank missiles, and what sounds like precision-guided bombs on drones.

Our colleague streiff provides more details on the armament gifts Johnson delivered in stark contrast to the halfhearted military assistance Biden belatedly agreed to under congressional pressures. After blocking the transfer of Soviet era fighters to Ukraine from East European neighbors.

Streiff also explores the reasons for Biden’s lack of enthusiasm — his pathetic groveling for Putin’s assistance in convincing Iran to rejoin the nuclear pact that’s almost become irrelevant.

Can you plagiarize policy too? This is actually a replay of Barack Obama’s Putin suck-up in 2009 when, without consulting with allies who’d gone out on a limb to agree, the big O killed a missile-defense system set for Eastern Europe.

No thanks from Vlad though. He’s a taker. The Russian proceeded to sell Tehran a nuclear reactor and first-class air defense system.

Johnson said he had a “sense of horror and revulsion at the brutality unleashed (by Russian forces) including the unconscionable bombing of refugees fleeing their homes. It is a war crime indiscriminately to attack civilians and Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine will not go unnoticed or unpunished.”

The British prime minister and Ukrainian president then went on a casual, amply-armed walk-about in Kyiv’s traffic-free streets caught on this video. Later, Johnson tweeted, “The Ukrainians have the courage of a lion.”

Boris Johnson and Volodymyr Zelenskyy going walkabout in Kyiv (and probably causing Johnson's close protection detail to age about 20 years in the process).pic.twitter.com/akZadjF3Uz

— Jimmy (@JimmySecUK) April 9, 2022

Johnson is but the latest foreign leader to visit Kyiv to show moral support for the nation that’s been holding off superior forces since Feb. 24.

Last month, as we reported here, three European prime ministers – from Poland, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic — braved Russian artillery fire and sabotage to travel by train and show support in person in Kyiv.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell both made visits on Friday, and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer earlier on Saturday, as well as other NATO allies delivering equipment and support. And reopening their embassies.

Though largely unnoticed by Americans and their media, these allied leaders are attempting to fill a leadership void left by the distant and often detached American leader of NATO. As usual, he spent the weekend at his Delaware home, where presidential visitor logs are not kept. And then he motorcaded all the way to church.

While Biden has been outspoken in his denunciations of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukraine invasion, he’s sounded less enthusiastic in support of Ukraine where his son Hunter was on the board of an energy company when Joe was vice president.

On a recent, hastily-organized trip to Europe, Biden did travel to NATO ally Poland, but got no closer than 500 miles to Kyiv. As often seems to happen, Biden seemed confused at times. He spoke to U.S. troops stationed there as if they had already been in Ukraine. That was either another mistake – aides quickly noted U.S. troops were not going into Ukraine — or a security slip by the U.S. commander in chief.

It would be highly unusual for the U.S. military and/or CIA to not have experienced observers in-country perhaps clandestinely with a friendly nation under attack, studying Russian tactics, equipment, their strengths, and weaknesses.

Biden has also observed that the Ukraine invasion would not enable Putin to secure the support of the people in Iran, which Russia has not yet invaded.

Much of the attention to Biden’s recent visit focused on his major speech in Warsaw during which he ad-libbed about Putin, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” immediately interpreted as a call for Moscow regime change.

Biden aides hustled around contradicting their boss. Too late. News that big had already gone out to the world. Three days later, the commander in chief was asked about the frequent walk-backs of his misstatements. He said they did not happen.

It’s not unusual for an American president to visit war zones – Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, even the Korean DMZ. But it’s always under strict security and only where U.S. troops are deployed.

Originally, Biden used the threat of future sanctions on Russians, their companies, and institutions to deter Putin’s invasion, which the Russian began assembling just 60 days after Donald Trump left office.

When that didn’t deter the attack, Biden, like Obama before him, imposed a series of economic sanctions, each one allegedly tighter than the last, and claimed they were never intended to deter, just to punish.

So far, sanctions have indeed hurt oligarchs and regular citizens. But they have inevitably failed to accomplish what was supposed to be their main purpose: to change the targets’ policies. See Russia, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea et al.

Still, media eat them up in photo-ops that appear to represent determined action.