“These are very important signals, for us it is a guarantee that we will be able to regain our territories, our lands,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, receiving Anthony Blinken, referring to Washington’s new military assistance to Kyiv at a time when the Ukrainian army announces success. on several fronts against Russian troops.
The most significant successes in the major Ukrainian counter-offensive that began last week, namely the recapture of the occupied Kherson region, were made in the Kharkiv region, which borders Russia to the northeast, where Ukrainian forces are said to have pushed back Russian defenses by about 50 kilometers. restoration of more than 20 locations.
In southern Ukraine, Kyiv forces claim to have crossed “many,” up to “several tens of kilometers,” Russian lines and “liberated several settlements,” according to Oleksiy Gromov, a senior member of the Ukrainian General Staff.
In the Donbass, a mining basin in eastern Ukraine that has seen the heaviest fighting in recent months, Kyiv said its troops advanced two to three kilometers around Kramatorsk and Slovyansk and recaptured the village of Ozernoye.
Such successes, currently impossible to verify from independent sources, will be the most important for Ukraine since the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kyiv at the end of March, and will be announced during Blinken’s surprise visit to Kyiv, the second since the visit began. invasion with the promise of a new “tranche” of aid.
The development of the Ukrainian counter-offensive is “permanent,” US Chief of Staff Mark Milley congratulated today as Ukraine’s allies met at the US base in Ramstein, Germany, to coordinate military assistance to Kyiv. Russia did not comment.
After meeting with Zelensky and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Blinken pledged U.S. support “before the start of aggression.” [russa] will end and Ukraine will become fully sovereign.”
“What we see is the price that Russia has to pay, which is already unbelievable, and which will be more and more,” commented Blinken, who arrived in the Ukrainian capital to discuss a new “tranche” of 2 euros. 8 billion for Kyiv and 18 countries in the region.
Of this amount, 675 million will go directly to Kyiv in the form of deliveries of weapons, ammunition and HIMARS artillery systems, which have already allowed Ukrainian forces to hit Russian supply convoys far behind the front lines.
As for the remaining 2.2 billion, it will be delivered in the form of loans and subsidies to Ukraine and countries that feel threatened by Russia to purchase American weapons.
This new amount brings the total amount of US aid to Ukraine since the invasion began more than six months ago to 15.2 billion euros.
Suitable countries include Georgia and Moldova, whose territories are controlled by pro-Russian separatists, as well as the Baltic states and Bosnia, where tensions with Serbian leaders are rising.
In Kyiv, the US Secretary of State began by visiting a hospital treating child victims of the war, in the company of his Ukrainian counterpart.
“I brought friends,” Kuleba said to sick young people, offering them soft toys.
Among the new commitments made to Ukraine, Norway has offered 160 Hellfire missiles and night vision goggles, Germany has provided winter gear, and the Netherlands has provided mine clearance training.
Blinken then hailed in Kyiv the “clear and real progress” of the Ukrainian army’s counter-offensive to retake territories controlled by Russian forces.
“It is still very early, but we are seeing clear and real progress on the ground, namely in the Kherson region (south), as well as interesting developments in the east, in the Donbass,” said Anthony Blinken.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine has already caused the flight of more than 13 million people – more than six million internally displaced people and more than seven million to European countries – according to the latest UN figures, which rank this migration crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion, justified by Putin as the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security, was condemned by the international community as a whole, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political and economic sanctions against Russia.
The UN has presented as confirmed since the beginning of the war, which entered its 197th day today, 5,718 civilians killed and 8,199 wounded, stressing that these figures are much lower than the real ones.
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