在周六宁静的周末早晨，美国总统乔·拜登的两名高级顾问登上了他们的航班，开始了一段神秘的漫长旅程。

这是一个秘密——直到乌克兰总统沃洛德梅尔·泽伦斯基在他们出发后几个小时泄露了秘密。战时总统宣布，国务卿安东尼·布林肯和国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀将访问基辅。

虽然拜登政府整个周末都拒绝置评，但这是一个可能会破坏秘密访问的小问题，因为派遣两名内阁官员前往活跃的战区存在严重的安全问题。

最终，布林肯、奥斯汀和一个小型代表团于周日抵达基辅，与泽伦斯基进行了三个小时的会谈，他们带来了一系列重大声明，包括增加数百万美元的美国安全援助，增加美国对乌克兰军队的培训，美国外交官重返乌克兰，以及在空缺三年后提名一名新的美国大使。

国务院和国防部高级官员驳斥了任何关于泽伦斯基的声明会危及行程的担忧:“我们为任何数量的突发事件做好了计划。...这并没有改变我们今天去那里分享我们要说的话的承诺，”一名国务院高级官员周日告诉记者。

但美国政府拒绝证实行程发生在周一凌晨，直到美国团队越过波兰边境返回。

“我们不知道这场战争的其余部分会如何展开，但我们知道，一个主权、独立的乌克兰将比弗拉基米尔·普京存在的时间长得多，我们对乌克兰未来的支持将会继续，”布林肯周一上午在波兰对记者表示。

自60天前俄罗斯入侵以来，这是美国高级官员的第一次访问——“部分是象征性的，但也是非常实质性的，”布林肯坐在泽伦斯基的桌子对面说。

这种物质就在他和奥斯汀随身携带的物品中，包括1.65亿美元用于乌克兰购买苏联时代武器的弹药，以及3.22亿美元用于乌克兰从国防公司购买——这就是所谓的外国军事融资。总体而言，拜登政府打算为乌克兰和其他15个欧洲国家提供超过7.13亿美元的外国军事资助，实际上所有这些国家都从自己的库存中支持乌克兰军队。

布林肯还宣布，拜登将正式提名现任美国驻斯洛伐克大使的职业外交官布里奇特·布林克(Bridget Brink)担任基辅特使。布林肯说，美国外交官最终也将返回波兰首都，因为他们本周将开始每天从波兰到利沃夫的边境之旅。

这是一次布林肯和奥斯丁亲身经历的旅程。他们于周六晚上抵达波兰东南部靠近乌克兰边境的地方——乘坐火车前往基辅，方向与抵达波兰的近300万乌克兰难民相反。

据美国国务院一名高级官员说，作为乘客，他们很少看到这个饱受战争蹂躏的国家，他说窗户上的窗帘遮住了大部分风景。

一旦到达首都，不再被俄罗斯围困，布林肯说有迹象表明正常生活正在恢复。

“我们当然在基辅的街道上看到了人们——这是基辅之战取得胜利的证据，至少从表面上看，这是正常的生活，”他后来告诉记者。“但这与乌克兰其他地区——南部和东部——正在发生的事情形成鲜明对比，俄罗斯的暴行每天都在对人们做出可怕的事情。”

据一名国务院高级官员称，他们从火车上直接前往总统府，与泽伦斯基及其团队进行了三个小时的会谈，其中包括外交部长Dmytro Kuleba、国防部长Oleksii Reznikov和总统办公室主任Andriy Yermak。

“在三个小时的大部分时间里，我们进行了一次非常好、详细、实质性和重点突出的对话，真正涉及了这场运动的每个方面和下一步措施，”这位国务院高级官员说。

这是自俄罗斯入侵以来，美国高级官员第一次见到泽伦斯基，这是一个探望这位电视明星的机会，他赢得了令人惊讶的总统选举，并成为了战时领导人和世界人物。

这位国务院高级官员说，当美国代表团去年5月访问泽伦斯基时，这是拜登官员与已经受到美国政治影响的乌克兰总统之间的首次会晤，泽伦斯基“不断充满活力，从一件事转到另一件事”。

“现在，有一种深思熟虑和庄重，”他们说，并形容他“非常专注，非常注重这个问题的不同方面，无论是安全、经济、人道主义还是制裁。他详细讲述了每一个细节，但都是经过深思熟虑的。”

这位官员补充说，即使是身体上，他“看起来也非常好”。

当美国代表团问及他的家人时，泽伦斯基说他们都很好，但“困难的是我们就是见不到对方。这位官员回忆他说。

“这只是一种人类的时刻。这里的每个人都是独立的个体，都有自己的个人生活和家庭生活，”他们补充道。“他将从一个电视名人变成除了美国总统和弗拉基米尔·普京总统之外，世界上最受认可的领导人。他非常好地承受了这一点。”

官员们说，面对面的对话使解决任何分歧变得更加容易，包括泽伦斯基推动美国将俄罗斯列为支持恐怖主义的国家。美国国务院做出的这一认定包含了美国最严厉的制裁，尽管俄罗斯已经受到了许多制裁。

一名美国官员向美国广播公司新闻证实，泽伦斯基在本月早些时候的一次电话中亲自要求拜登指定俄罗斯。

根据这位国务院高级官员的说法，这一名称是针对支持恐怖组织的政府，而不是那些实施恐怖的政府，他们在会谈中解释说，国务院律师正在审查这种可能性，“但这是一项法规。这是一个法律决定。”

“看，俄罗斯人正在恐吓乌克兰人。但这不同于说他们符合“支持恐怖主义国家”的标准。”

但是如果面对面的交流真的那么重要，那么问题就来了，为什么拜登自己不去呢?另一名国务院高级官员指出了安全问题。

“就旅行要求而言，美国总统有点独特，因此它远远超出了内阁秘书或几乎任何其他世界领导人的要求。”

Inside Blinken and Austin's risky, secret visit to Ukraine

In the quiet weekend morning hours Saturday, two of President Joe Biden's top advisers boarded their flights -- the start of a long journey shrouded in secrecy.

It was a secret -- until Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spilled just hours after they were wheels up. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were coming to visit Kyiv, the war-time president announced.

While the Biden administration refused to comment all weekend, it was a hiccup that could have derailed the secret visit, amid intense security concerns about sending two Cabinet officials to an active war zone.

In the end, Blinken, Austin, and a small delegation arrived in Kyiv Sunday for a three-hour meeting with Zelenskyy, carrying with them a number of major announcements to make -- millions more in U.S. security assistance, increased U.S. training for Ukrainian troops, the return of U.S. diplomats to Ukraine, and after three years of vacancy, a nominee for a new U.S. ambassador.

Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken attend a meeti...

Senior State and Defense Department officials dismissed any concerns that Zelenskyy's announcement imperiled the trip: "We plan for any number of contingencies. ... It didn't change anything about our commitment to go there today and to share what we have to say," a senior State Department official told reporters Sunday.

But the administration refused to confirm the trip took place until the early morning hours Monday -- only when the U.S. team returned across the border in Poland.

"We don't know how the rest of this war will unfold, but we do know that a sovereign, independent Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin is on the scene, and our support for Ukraine going forward will continue," Blinken told reporters Monday morning in Poland.

The visit was the first by senior U.S. officials since Russia's invasion started 60 days ago -- "part symbolism but also very substantive," Blinken said as he sat across the table from Zelenskyy.

That substance was in what he and Austin carried with them, including $165 million for Ukraine to purchase ammunition for its Soviet-era weaponry and $322 million for Ukraine to purchase from defense firms -- what's known as foreign military financing. In total, the Biden administration intends to obligate more than $713 million in foreign military financing for Ukraine and 15 other European countries, virtually all of whom have supported Ukraine's military from their own stockpiles.

Blinken also announced Biden would formally nominate Bridget Brink, a career diplomat currently serving as U.S. ambassador to Slovakia, to serve as envoy in Kyiv. U.S. diplomats will eventually return to the capital too, Blinken said, as they start this week by making the journey across the border from Poland to Lviv on a daily basis.

It's a journey Blinken and Austin now know personally. They arrived in southeastern Poland Saturday evening near the border with Ukraine -- riding the train to Kyiv in the opposite direction from the nearly three million Ukrainian refugees who've arrived in Poland.

As passengers, they saw little of the war-torn country, according to a senior State Department official, who said shades on the windows blacked out much of the view.

Once in the capital, no longer under Russian siege, Blinken said there were signs that normal life was returning.

"We certainly saw people on the streets in Kyiv -- evidence of that fact that the battle for Kyiv was won, and there is what looks from the surface at least to be normal life," he told reporters afterwards. "But that's in stark contrast to what's going on in other parts of Ukraine -- in the south and the east -- where the Russian brutality is doing horrific things to people every single day."

From the train, they traveled straight to the presidential palace for three hours of meetings with Zelenskyy and his team, according to a senior State Department official, including Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, and Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President.

"We had a really good, detailed, substantive, focused conversation for the better part of three hours that really went into every aspect of this campaign and next steps," the senior State Department official said.

It was the first time senior U.S. officials had seen Zelenskyy since Russia invaded -- a chance to check in on the TV star, who won a surprising presidential election, and who's become a wartime leader and world figure.

When a U.S. delegation visited Zelenskyy last May -- the first meeting between Biden officials and a Ukrainian president already bruised by American politics -- Zelenskyy was "constantly energized, moving from one thing to another," the senior State Department official said.

"Now, there's a deliberateness and a kind of gravitas," they said, describing him as "very focused, very detail-oriented on different aspects of this, whether the security, the economic, the humanitarian, the sanctions. He went into real detail on each, but in a very deliberate way."

Even physically, he "looked remarkably well," the official added.

When the U.S. delegation asked about his family, Zelenskyy said they were doing ok, but "'the hard part is we just don't see each other. We miss each other,'" the official recounted him saying.

"It was just a kind of human moment. Everyone in this thing is an individual with their own individual lives and family lives," they added. "He's going from being a TV celebrity to maybe the most recognized leader -- other than the president of the United States and Vladimir Putin -- in the world. He's borne that remarkably well."

An in-person conversation makes working through any differences easier, officials said -- including Zelenskyy's push for the U.S. to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. The designation, made by the State Department, carries the strictest U.S. sanctions, although Russia is already under many of them.

Zelenskyy personally asked Biden to designate Russia during a phone call earlier this month, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News.

The designation is for governments that support terrorist groups, not ones that terrorize, per the senior State Department official, who said during their talks, they explained State Department lawyers are reviewing the possibility, "but it's a statute. It's a legal determination."

"Look, the Russians are terrorizing the Ukrainians. But that's different than saying they meet the criteria of the SST [state sponsor of terrorism designation]."

But if face-to-face interactions are that important, it begs the question why didn't Biden himself go. Another senior State Department official pointed to security concerns.

"The president of the United States is somewhat singular in terms of what travel would require, so it goes well beyond what a cabinet secretary would - or what virtually any other world leader - would require."