Blinken visits Kyiv amid challenging Ukrainian offensive

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday in a gesture of support as Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces grinds into its fourth month with only small gains. During his two-day visit, staying overnight in Ukraine for the first time since before Russia’s February 2022 invasion, Blinken will likely announce a new package of U.S. assistance worth more than $1 billion, a senior State Department official said in a briefing for reporters on the trip. Blinken, on the first trip to Kyiv by a top U.S. official since the Ukrainian counteroffensive began, is expected to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba among other senior officials as well as civil society figures, the official said. Media reports have cited unidentified U.S. officials as saying the counteroffensive has been too slow and hindered by poor tactics, criticism that angered Ukrainian officials and prompted Kuleba to tell critics to “shut up”. Ukraine has retaken more than a dozen villages and small settlements in its offensive but its soldiers’ push into Russian-held territory has been slowed by vast minefields and miles of trenches. U.S. officials have been careful not to publicly criticize Ukraine’s military tactics, and last week said they had observed notable Ukrainian progress in the previous 72 hours of its push in the southeast.—Reuters