Top US diplomats told Zelensky they would ‘Return This Week’

Kyiv: Washington’s top diplomatic and military officials from the United States arrived in Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv on Sunday for the first time since Russia invaded two months ago to announce a gradual return of U.S. diplomats and the appointment of a new ambassador, according to reports.

A senior State Department official said that on Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top Ukrainian officials, a senior State Department official said, declining to elaborate on their travel or security arrangements.

The cabinet secretaries also pledged new assistance worth $713 million to Zelensky’s government and countries in the region, where the Russian invasion has raised fears of further Russian aggression.

It also emphasised the conflict’s shift since Ukrainian forces successfully repelled a Russian assault on Kyiv.

Foreign leaders can now visit Kyiv, and some Western nations have reestablished diplomatic ties, but Washington is wary of a return due to sporadic Russian missile attacks in the west.

For reasons of security, officials turned down media requests for press access into Ukraine. Officials in Poland told reporters not to report on the trip until the delegation had safely exited Ukraine.

Austin will then travel to Germany to meet with counterparts from over 20 countries and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the US air base at Ramstein, a Pentagon official said.

US officials said it was a contingency they had planned for and did not derail the visit.

Blinken and Austin met for about 90 minutes with Zelensky, Dmytro Kuleba, Oleksii Reznikov, and other officials.

The US embassy in Kyiv closed nearly two weeks before the February 24 invasion, moving some functions to Lviv, then to Poland.

Diplomats will resume “day trips” to Lviv next week, and officials are speeding up plans to return to the Kyiv mission.

“There’s no substitute for that face-to-face engagement, and of course, there is a symbolism to being back in the country,” the official told reporters in Poland.

The official also said President Joe Biden will nominate Bridget Brink, currently the US ambassador to Slovakia, to the vacant post of US ambassador to Ukraine on Monday.

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