Attempts were made to keep the trip a secret, according to the New York Times, but the Ukrainian president announced the matter in advance, which was a surprise to the Americans.
25.4. 09:13 • Updated April 25. 10:22
United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the Minister of Defense Lloyd Austin have visited Ukraine. They traveled to the capital Kiev by train from the southwest of Poland.
According to the newspaper, Blinken and Austin were in the middle of their flight to Poland after the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi told “unannounced” about his upcoming visit at a news conference on Saturday. Ministers flew to Poland on ordinary Air Force cargo planes.
The United States did not comment on Zelensky’s announcement or visit in any way in advance.
Media representatives who normally followed the ministers’ business trips were not allowed to join the party and were not allowed to say anything about the visit until the ministers had safely left Ukraine.
Blinken: Ukraine has existed for much longer than Putin
According to Foreign Minister Blinken, Ukraine is succeeding and Russia is failing in its war goals.
– We do not know how the final war will go, but we know that an independent Ukraine will last much longer than Vladimir Putin is on the scene, Blinken told reporters after arriving in Poland.
In a video released about the meeting, Blinken praised Zelensky’s exceptional courage, leadership, and success. According to Defense Minister Austin, Ukraine has inspired the world.
– What you have done to deport the Russians in the fighting in Kiev has been different, Austin said.
According to Austin, Ukraine can win the war if it has the required equipment and support.
“We want to see Russia weaken to the point that it can no longer do things like it did when it invaded Ukraine,” Austin said.
CNN: Ukraine’s weapons systems want NATO-compatible
In addition to President Zelensky, Foreign Minister Blinken and Defense Minister Austin met with, among others, the Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleban and the Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov in a session lasting about three hours.
They said the Biden administration plans to provide $ 713 million in additional funding to Ukraine and 15 Eastern European countries.
The funding is intended to help the Ukrainian military transition to more advanced weapons and air defense systems, authorities told the New York Times. News channel from CNN (switch to another service) according to which it is a question of making Ukraine’s systems more compatible with NATO systems.
The aid will also help Ukraine to obtain Soviet-era weapons that are still being used by the country’s army.
Zelenskyi had said before the visit that there is no “empty-handed” coming to Kiev.
Representatives of the U.S. administration stressed to reporters before the trip that the visit did not mean increasing U.S. direct involvement in the war.
President Zelenskyi tweeted late Sunday that the friendship and partnership between Ukraine and the United States is stronger than ever.
In a statement sent out on Monday, Zelenskyi said he appreciated the unprecedented help and support of the United States for Ukraine.
– We’ll see it. We know it, Zelenskyi said.
American diplomats return to Ukraine
The United States closed its embassy in Kiev before the war, on 14 February.
Now diplomats will gradually return to Ukraine starting next week, U.S. administration sources say.
They will start by making day trips from the Polish side to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine and seek to increase their presence in other parts of the country and eventually in Kiev.
The Kiev embassy will open as soon as possible, but it will probably take weeks.
Blinken announced that Bridget Brink appointed new US Ambassador to Ukraine.
The post had not been filled permanently since the previous president Donald Trump dismissed the previous Ukrainian ambassador Marie Yovanovitchin surprisingly from his post in May 2019.
Yovanovitch was the target of Trump’s October campaign because he did not support Trump’s efforts to investigate the actions of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son in Ukraine.
The new ambassador, Brink, is currently working as the U.S. ambassador to Slovakia.
Supplemented 25.4. at 10.17 with comments from Blinken and Austin and added information that it will take weeks to open the embassy in Kiev. Corrected the duration of the meeting to be three hours and the return of diplomats next week, not this week. Added at 10.22 Zelensky’s comment on the release.