Zelensky meets with US foreign and defense ministers in Kyiv

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held a meeting yesterday evening in Kyiv, according to the Ukrainian presidency.

“The Americans are in Kyiv today,” Oleksiy Aristovich, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said in an interview published in the evening on YouTube. They are talking at this moment with the president,” in the first meeting between Zelensky and representatives of the US administration in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24. Aristovich anticipates the arrival of the two ministers by saying that his country will inform them of the immediate need for more weapons, including anti-missile and anti-aircraft systems, as well as armored vehicles and tanks. To that, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will launch today a tour to try to settle the Russian-Ukrainian war, which includes Turkey, Russia and Ukraine .

Guterres starts his tour from Ankara today, where he will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who expressed his country’s readiness to provide the necessary support for the Ukrainian-Russian negotiation process, including mediation. Guterres will then visit the Russian capital, Moscow, to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, and then move to Kyiv on Thursday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The UN official seeks to discuss urgent steps that can be taken to stop the fighting.

Guterres’ tour was met with criticism from the Ukrainian side, as Zelensky considered the Secretary-General’s decision to visit Moscow before coming to Kyiv “illogical”. “It is wrong to go to Russia first and then to Ukraine,” he said, expressing his regret for “the complete lack of justice and logic in this arrangement.”

On the other hand, the Russian “TASS” news agency quoted a local official as saying that a village in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine was bombed across the border. Vladimir Bertsev said the bombing caused no casualties or damage after a shell landed in a field.

On the other hand, European officials yesterday expressed their concern over the statements made by a prominent Russian general last week, which they considered threatening the sovereignty of Moldova. Western intelligence recently stated that it had observed a heavy presence of what it called “Moscow agents” in Moldova, expressing fear that their presence aims to create unrest against the Russian-speaking minority.
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