Blinken will reassure Ukrainian officials of enduring US support and deliver a speech focused on Ukraine's future.=KYIV — United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on May 14 in the first visit to Ukraine by a senior US official since Congress passed a long-delayed US$61 billion military aid package for the country in April.
"The Secretary's mission here is really to talk about how our supplemental assistance is going to be executed in a fashion to help shore up their defences enable them to increasingly take back the initiative on the battlefield," the official said. Kyiv has been on the back foot on the battlefield for months as Russian troops have slowly advanced, mainly in the Donetsk region to the south, taking advantage of Ukraine's shortages of troop manpower and artillery shells. Russia's forces hold a significant advantage in manpower and munitions.
Moscow's troops entered Ukraine near its second largest city of Kharkiv on May 10, opening a new, north-eastern front in a war that has for almost two years been largely fought in the east and south. The advance could draw some of Kyiv's depleted forces away from the east, where Russia has been advancing.Economic and political reforms being undertaken by Kyiv will pave the way for Ukraine to join the European Union and eventually Nato, the official said.