US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due in Kyiv for talks with Ukrainian leaders on Jan.19 before flying to Berlin as part of continuing Western efforts aimed at averting a major escalation in a bitter eight-year-old conflict between Ukraine and Russia
The development comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting Tuesday with a visiting bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. During it, he voiced concern at reports that Russia was giving out passports to Ukrainians in areas occupied by Russian proxies, in an apparent effort to give the Kremlin an excuse to invade Ukraine by claiming a right to ‘protect’ Russian citizens.
The visit, by prominent members of the US Congress, comes just weeks after the US government approved an increase of $300 million in security funding for Ukraine. In a written statement released on the same day, the visiting senators expressed their solidarity with Ukraine:
“We are here to send a bipartisan, unconditional message that the United States, Europe and Ukraine will make sure that Russia is dealt a set of consequential blows to their economy and to their security forces if they were to choose to mount a conventional invasion of Ukraine.“
The US diplomats' visits to Ukraine comes after an intense week of talks between the US, NATO and Russia over Moscow's demand for “security guarantees” and for the exclusion of Ukraine from possible NATO membership.
Russia's demands were rebuffed and Ukraine's allies have instead reiterated their support for the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and the right of Ukraine to choose its own alliances.
Earlier on Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called for a new round of talks with Moscow to avoid a possible Russian attack on Ukraine. “The main task now is to prevent a military attack on Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said after a meeting with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz in Berlin.
Stoltenberg's offer came shortly after the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock left Russia, after meeting her counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow.
Baerbock said Germany was steadfast in its support of Ukraine and called for an urgent return to talks through the Normandy Format, the four-way dialogue between Germany, Russia, France and Ukraine.
