Top U.S. officials visit Ukraine, pledge more military aid and to re-open embassy in Kyiv

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Ukraine to discuss military aid with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday.

The visit, which saw the senior U.S. officials meet with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Kuleba as well as the country’s defense and interior ministers, saw both sides discuss the U.S.’ continued “security assistance, economic assistance and humanitarian assistance” for Ukraine, one senior official said in a background briefing on the visit.

Three significant announcements were made following the visit:

Firstly, that President Biden will formally nominate Bridget Brink, currently the U.S.’ ambassador to Slovakia to be the next U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

Secondly, U.S. diplomats will be returning to Ukraine as early as this week, starting with day trips into the western city of Lviv then graduating to potentially other parts of the country and ultimately, to resume their presence in Kyiv. A senior state department official said Sunday that “we’ll seek to have our diplomats return to our embassy in Kyiv as soon as possible.”

Lastly, that the U.S. has pledged more than $713 million in foreign military financing, including funding for Ukraine and 15 other allied and partner nations in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

 — Holly Ellyatt

Russia is planning a staged referendum in Kherson, Ukraine, to justify its occupation, the British defense ministry said in an intelligence update.

The southern city is important to Moscow’s objective of establishing a land bridge to Crimea and dominating southern Ukraine, the U.K. Defense Ministry said in a tweet.

The Crimea peninsula, which Russia illegally seized control of in 2014, lies to the south of Ukraine between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. It is separated from Russia to the east by the narrow Kerch Strait.

The ministry noted that Russia previously held a “illegitimate referendum” in Crimea in 2014 to retrospectively legitimize the accession of the peninsula into the country.

“Russia’s own domestic elections have been beset by allegations of vote rigging and have seen high-profile opposition blocked from running,” the ministry added.

— Chelsea Ong

The U.S. secretaries of state and defense met Sunday night with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the highest-level visit to the war-torn country’s capital by an American delegation since the start of Russia’s invasion.

The meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was confirmed by presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych in an interview on Ukrainian TV.

It came as Ukraine pressed the West for more powerful weapons against Russia’s campaign in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s forces sought to dislodge the last Ukrainian troops in the battered port of Mariupol.

“Yes, they’re meeting with the president. Let’s hope something will be decided on further help,” Arestovych said in an interview on Ukrainian TV.

Before the session, Zelenskyy said he was looking for the Americans to produce results, both in arms and security guarantees.

“You can’t come to us empty-handed today, and we are expecting not just presents or some kind of cakes, we are expecting specific things and specific weapons,” he said.

—Associated Press

No humanitarian routes were established out of the besieged southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said, blaming Russian forces for not holding their fire.

Vereshchuk said the Ukrainian side would try again on Monday to establish safe passage out of Mariupol. She called for U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who is scheduled to travel to Moscow before visiting Kyiv this week, to demand a ceasefire and open up humanitarian corridors from Mariupol.

“This is what Guterres should talk about in Moscow, if he is preparing to talk about peace,” Vereshchuk said.

—Reuters