US President Joe Biden on Monday announced new military aid and a fresh round of sanctions on Russia during his surprise visit to Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky. This is Biden’s first visit to a war zone as president.

The gesture of solidarity comes days before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Biden announced an aid package worth $500 million that would include artillery ammunition, more javelins and howitzers, CNN reported.

“We will announce $500 million in aid to Ukraine. This will consist of javelins, howitzers, and artillery ammunition,” Biden said.

Zelensky said he and Biden spoke about “long-range weapons and the weapons that may still be supplied to Ukraine even though it wasn’t supplied before”, CNN reported.

Last month, the US said it would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine even as it has reportedly declined to deliver F-16 fighter jets to the war-torn country despite several requests by Zelensky.

The US President also said that later this week his government “would announce additional sanctions against elites and companies that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine”.

Speaking alongside Zelensky at Mariinsky Palace, Biden said, “One year later Kyiv stands, Ukraine stands, and Democracy stands. America and the world stand with you. Kyiv has captured a part of my heart.”

Biden said his visit to Kyiv would “reaffirm our unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity”.

“When Putin launched his invasion nearly one year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he could outlast us. But he was dead wrong,” BBC quoted the US President as saying.

“Putin’s war conquest is failing. Russia’s military has lost half its territory once occupied. Young, talented Russians are fleeing from Russia because they see no future in the country. Russian’s economy is isolated and struggling,” Biden said.

Biden, who is scheduled to visit Warsaw, Poland, later this week, visited the gold-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv even as air raids sirens howled over the capital. Biden and Zelensky then laid a wreath and held a moment of silence at the Wall of Remembrance honoring Ukrainian soldiers killed since 2014.

In a televised joint statement after their meeting, Zelensky said the “democratic world” has to “win this historic fight”.

“It’s the most important visit of the whole history of US-Ukraine relations. Today our negotiations were very fruitful,” Zelensky further said.