UPDATE
American diplomats will start returning to Ukraine this week, and the United States is sending more military aid to help Ukraine’s war effort against Russia, as senior U.S. officials pledged Monday to continue supporting Ukraine and rallying other nations to contribute.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Poland after visiting Kyiv along with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that while Russia is trying to “brutalize” parts of Ukraine, “Ukrainians are standing strong, and they’re doing that with the support that we have coordinated from literally around the world.”
Blinken said he and Austin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other officials for about three hours to both demonstrate U.S. support and to hear from Zelenskyy what his country needs as the conflict moves forward.
“We want to do everything we can to help the Ukrainians bring this to an end on the best possible terms as quickly as possible,” Blinken said.
Zelenskyy’s office said Monday the discussions included security guarantees along with defense and financial aid for Ukraine. A statement said the Ukrainian side put a particular focus on increasing sanctions against Russia. “We understand what the next steps on this track should be. And we count on the support of our partners,” Zelenskyy said.
The United States is providing further foreign military financing to Ukraine to help the country obtain more advanced weapons and air defense systems to fend off Russian attacks, according to senior U.S. officials.
“We intend to obligate more than $713 million in foreign military financing,” a senior State official said. “This includes funding for Ukraine and 15 other allies and partner nations in Central and Eastern Europe, in the Balkans. ... And it will provide support for capabilities Ukraine needs, especially for the fight in the Donbas.”
With the new assistance in foreign military financing, the U.S. would have committed about $3.4 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began, and more than $4.3 billion since the start of the Biden administration.
Returning U.S. diplomats will go first to the western city of Lviv and then eventually to Kyiv, a process that Blinken said could take several weeks.
U.S. President Joe Biden is also set to formally nominate Bridget Brink, currently U.S. ambassador to Slovakia, to be U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
Several European Union and NATO member countries are sending their diplomats back to Kyiv, including Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia. The U.K. government announced Friday that it would shortly reopen the British Embassy in Kyiv.
The return of foreign diplomats is seen as a sign of some semblance of safety in Ukraine after almost two months of Russia’s shelling and bombing.
“In terms of Russia’s war aims, Russia has already failed and Ukraine has already succeeded because the principal aim that President Putin brought to this, in his own words, was to fully subsume Ukraine back into Russia, to take away its sovereignty and independence, and that has not happened and clearly will not happen,” Blinken said.
The visit to Kyiv came ahead of Tuesday’s consultations between the U.S. and dozens of allies at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, where Austin will discuss Ukraine’s long-term defense needs.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov will attend Tuesday’s meetings.
On Tuesday’s agenda: an update on battlefield conditions, Ukraine’s resistance amid Russia’s attacks, upcoming security assistance to Ukraine, and Ukraine’s willingness and ability to move away from Russian-made systems.
“This isn’t about (Ukraine’s appeal to) NATO membership. It’s about helping them with their long-term defense needs going forward with a potential migration away from Soviet systems,” a senior defense official said.
“One of the things we expect to talk about in Ramstein on Tuesday is additional contributions by allies and partners on the systems, weapons and ammunition that the Ukrainians need the most,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said in a briefing in Poland Sunday.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is scheduled to meet with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara Monday and Putin in Moscow on Tuesday. Guterres then goes to Kyiv on Thursday to meet with Zelenskyy.
“Our expectation is that he’s going to carry a very strong and clear message to Vladimir Putin, which is the need to end this war now, the need for a cease-fire, the need for humanitarian corridors, for aid to get in, for people to be able to get out, the need for Russia to stop its brutalization of Ukraine,” Blinken said. “It’s a clear, direct message that he should be carrying on behalf of virtually the entire international community.”
Britain’s defense ministry said Monday Ukraine’s defense of the southern port city of Mariupol has “exhausted many Russian units and reduced their combat effectiveness. The ministry added that Russia has “yet to achieve a significant breakthrough” since turning its focus in Ukraine to the eastern Donbas region.
Ukrainian officials said Russian forces launched a new airstrike Sunday on the Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol, where Ukrainian forces have been holed up and defiantly refusing Russian demands to surrender.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a tight blockade of the facility that Russian forces have struggled to take over from perhaps thousands of Ukraine fighters and civilians who have remained in control of the plant with its labyrinth of tunnels and passageways.
Britain’s defense ministry said Monday Ukraine’s defense of Mariupol has “exhausted many Russian units and reduced their combat effectiveness. The ministry added that Russia has “yet to achieve a significant breakthrough” since turning its focus in Ukraine to the eastern Donbas region.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement Sunday that it is “deeply alarmed by the situation in Mariupol, where the population is in dire need of assistance.” The ICRC said, “Immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access is urgently required to allow for the voluntary safe passage of thousands of civilians and hundreds of wounded out of the city, including from the Azovstal plant area.”
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-diplomats-to-begin-returning-to-ukraine-/6543610.html
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