Brian McDonald
Kyiv, Ukraine – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that American military aid is on the way Ukraine will make a “real difference” on the battlefield as the top diplomat made an unannounced visit to reassure an ally facing a fierce new Russian offensive. In recent days, in increasingly intense attacks along Ukraine’s northeastern border, Moscow’s troops have captured about 40 to 80 square kilometers of territory, including at least seven villages, according to open-source monitoring analysts.
Although most of these villages were already depopulated, thousands of civilians in the area fled the fighting, and analysts consider it one of the most dangerous moments for Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed his long-standing but possibly more urgent request for more air defense systems to protect civilians under Russian fire in the northeast when he met with Blinken on Tuesday.
Alina Smutko/Reuters
“We know this is a challenging time,” Blinken said in the Ukrainian capital, where he met with Zelenskyy. But he added that American military aid “will make a real difference against ongoing Russian aggression on the battlefield.”
The visit comes less than a month after Congress approved a long-delayed foreign assistance package which sets aside $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, much of which will go towards replacing badly depleted artillery and air defense systems.
Some of this “is on the way,” Blinken said, and some has already arrived in Ukraine.
Moscow’s renewed offensive in the region northeast of Kharkiv is the most significant border incursion since the early days of the war – and comes after months in which the roughly 600-mile front line barely moved. However, it was not unexpected.
Zelenskyy told CBS News’ Charlie D’Agata in late March, as his country waited for U.S. politicians to release the aid package, that although his troops had largely managed to keep the Russians at bay up to that point, they they were not prepared to defend themselves against another major Russian offensive, which he said was expected in the coming months.
The Ukrainian leader announced in the interview that if his country’s Western partners were unable to help stop Russia’s invasion, “this aggression, and Putin’s army, could reach Europe, and then the citizens of the United States, the soldiers of the United States, will have to protect Europe, because they are members of NATO.”
More than 7,500 civilians were evacuated from the area, authorities said. Kremlin forces are also expanding their advance into the northern border regions of Sumy and Chernihiv, Ukrainian officials say, and Kiev’s outnumbered and outgunned soldiers are fighting to contain them.
Troops fought from street to street on the outskirts of Vovchansk, which is among the largest cities in the Kharkiv area, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on national television. Two civilians were killed in Russian shelling on Tuesday, he said.
The UN human rights office said the battles were taking a heavy toll.
“We are deeply concerned about the situation of civilians in Ukraine,” said Liz Throssell, spokeswoman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. “In the Kharkiv region, the situation is terrible.”
Valentyn Ogirenko/REUTERS
Zelenskyy thanked Blinken for the US help – but added that more is needed, including two Patriot air defense systems that are urgently needed to protect Kharkiv.
“People are under attack: civilians, warriors, everyone. They are under Russian missiles,” he said.
Artillery, air defense interceptors and long-range ballistic missiles have already been delivered, some of them already to the front lines, said a senior U.S. official who was traveling with the secretary on an overnight train from Poland and who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity before the Blinken Meetings.
Ahead of the trip, U.S. officials noted that since President Biden signed the relief package late last month, the administration has already announced $1.4 billion in short-term military assistance and $6 billion in long-term support.
The administration is “really trying to accelerate the pace” of U.S. arms shipments, said national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
But delays in U.S. assistance, especially since Israel-Hamas War began and worried senior administration officials, provoked deep concern in Kiev and Europe. Blinken, for example, has visited the Middle East seven times since the conflict in Gaza began in October. His last trip to Kiev was in September.
On his fourth trip to Kiev since Russian troops crossed the border, Blinken emphasized U.S. support for Ukraine’s independence and eventual recovery, according to spokesman Matthew Miller. The US diplomat and the Ukrainian president also discussed long-term security arrangements and Ukraine’s economic well-being.
Blinken was scheduled to give a speech on Tuesday extolling Ukraine’s “strategic successes” in the war. It is intended to complement a speech by Blinken last year in Helsinki, Finland, ridiculing Putin for Moscow’s strategic failures in launching the war.
However, since the Helsinki speech, Russia has intensified its attacks, particularly as the US House of Representatives sat for months without action on the aid package, forcing a suspension in the provision of most US assistance. Such attacks have increased in recent weeks as Russia sought to take advantage of Ukrainian shortages of manpower and weapons while new assistance was in transit.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to make a two-day state visit to China this week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. Beijing politically supported Moscow in the war and sent machine tools, electronics and other items considered to contribute to the Russian war effort, without actually exporting weapons.
“A strong, successful, prosperous and free Ukraine is the best possible rebuke to Putin and the best possible guarantee for his future,” Blinken told Zelenskyy in Kiev.
The senior US official said that despite some recent setbacks, Ukraine can still claim significant victories. These include recovering around 50% of the territory that Russian forces occupied in the first months of the war, strengthening its economic position and improving transport and commercial links, notably through military successes in the Black Sea.
The official acknowledged that Ukraine faces “a tough fight” and is “under tremendous pressure” but argued that Ukrainians “will become increasingly confident” as new aid from the US and other Western countries begins to arrive. .
