<\/p>\n
Russia is failing in its war aims following the invasion of Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said following a visit to the capital Kyiv.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a news conference on the border with Poland meeting with President Volodymr Zelenskyy, Mr Blinken added that a \u201csovereign, independent Ukraine\u201d will be around \u201ca lot longer than Russia\u2019s Putin is on the scene\u201d.<\/p>\n
It comes after he pledged $322m (\u00a3251m) in new foreign military financing for Ukraine and confirmed that US diplomats will start gradually returning to the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia has sought as its principal aim to totally subjugate Ukraine, to take away its sovereignty \u2026 that has failed.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Russia \u201csought to assert the power of its military and its economy\u201d but \u201creports are seeing just the opposite: a military that is dramatically underperforming, an economy as a result of sanctions that has resulted in a mass exodus from Russia, that is in shambles.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that Russia has \u201csought to divide the West and NATO\u201d but the military alliance and its allies are more united than ever.<\/p>\n
It was the first visit by a senior US official since Russia invaded Ukraine 60 days ago \u2013 and Mr Blinken was joined by Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.<\/p>\n
Key developments:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Ukraine has proposed talks with Russia over the fate of civilians and troops who remain in Mariupol<\/p>\n
\u2022 No humanitarian routes were established out of Mariupol on Sunday \u2013 Ukrainian officials hope to try again on Monday<\/p>\n
\u2022 Boris Johnson described Vladimir Putin\u2019s actions in Ukraine as \u201cnauseating\u201d and \u201cblatant aggression\u201d during a call with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres<\/p>\n
\u2022 An unspecified number of civilians were killed by Russian shelling in Ukraine\u2019s Luhansk region on Sunday, local officials claim<\/p>\n
\u2022 The war in Ukraine is entering its third month with no end in sight \u2013 with many thousands of people killed, millions becoming refugees, and cities reduced to rubble<\/p>\n
The media was not allowed to accompany the secretaries on the trip, and their discussions with President Zelenskyy lasted for about 90 minutes.<\/p>\n
Details about their talks could not be reported until their delegation was safely out of Ukraine and back in Poland.<\/p>\n
The new financing brings the total US security assistance to Ukraine since the invasion began to $3.7bn (\u00a32.9bn).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will provide support for capabilities Ukraine needs, especially the fight in the Donbas,\u201d an official said.<\/p>\n
A further $400m (\u00a3312m) in new foreign military financing will also be shared among 15 other nations in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the Balkans.<\/p>\n
US President Joe Biden will also soon announce his nominee to be ambassador to Ukraine \u2013 Bridget Brink, a career foreign service officer.<\/p>\n
Mr Zelenskyy had announced that he was going to meet both men during a news conference held in an underground train station in Kyiv on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
But the White House had refused to confirm that or discuss details of a possible visit \u2013 with US officials later revealing this was a contingency they had planned for.<\/p>\n
Embassy staff to gradually return<\/p>\n
In other developments, Ukraine\u2019s foreign minister has been told that staff from the now-closed US embassy in Kyiv \u2013 who have relocated to Poland \u2013 are going to begin making day trips to the Ukrainian city of Lviv.<\/p>\n
The US State Department has vowed to reopen the embassy there as soon as the situation allows.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no substitute for that face-to-face engagement, and of course there is a symbolism to being back in the country,\u201d an official said.<\/p>\n
Prior to Mr Blinken\u2019s arrival, Ukraine\u2019s president had warned that he expected the Americans to produce results.<\/p>\n
He had said: \u201cYou can\u2019t come to us empty-handed today, and we are expecting not just presents or some kind of cakes, we are expecting specific things and specific weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the West has funnelled military equipment to Ukraine, Mr Zelenskyy has stressed repeatedly that his country needs more heavy weapons, long-range air defence systems and warplanes.<\/p>\n
Source: Sky News<\/p>\n
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Russia is failing in its war aims following the invasion of Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said following a visit to the capital Kyiv. Speaking at a news conference on the border with Poland meeting with President Volodymr Zelenskyy, Mr Blinken added that a \u201csovereign, independent Ukraine\u201d will be around \u201ca lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1066041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[3555,5339,3892,2742,9884,5440,4071],"class_list":["post-1066039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics","tag-failing","tag-russia","tag-secretary","tag-state","tag-succeedingus","tag-ukraine","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1066039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066039\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1066039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1066039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1066039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}