US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced $2bn in additional military aid for Ukraine as he visits the country at a crucial phase in the war, with Russia striking deeper into Ukrainian territory and claiming to have seized three more settlements.
Speaking at a joint news conference in Kyiv alongside Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday, Blinken said the support, which comes on top of $61bn in US support approved by Congress last month, would be aimed at investing in Ukraine’s industrial base.
He announced that the United States and Ukraine had already done the “heavy lifting” on a bilateral security agreement, which could be signed within weeks. He said the US was rushing ammunition, armoured vehicles, missiles and air defences to Ukraine in order to ensure their speedy delivery to the front line.
His remarks came as Ukrainian forces are being stretched across the long front line, struggling to fend off a renewed Russian offensive. On Wednesday, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said Russian forces had taken control of the settlements of Hlyboke and Lukyantsi in the northeastern Kharkiv region, and Robotyne in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, the latest in a run of incremental gains that have alarmed Kyiv.
Ukraine said that it had pulled back some troops in the Kharkiv region, where Russian troops launched a surprise offensive earlier this month, pounding settlements along the border.
“In certain spots in Lukyantsi and Vovchansk areas, due to the fire impact and assault actions of the enemy, manoeuvres were carried out in order to save the lives of our soldiers, units were removed to advantageous positions,” a military spokesman said on state television.
Ukrainian officials have said that more than 30,000 Russian forces have been deployed to the northeastern region. Emergency services have evacuated about 8,000 people, most of them women, elderly people, people with reduced mobility, and people with disabilities and children.
In central Ukraine, at least two people were killed in a Russian air attack on the city of Dnipro, according to the regional governor.
