Kyiv: In a first since the war began on February 24th, US top officials met Ukraine President in Kyiv on Sunday. Taking to Twitter Zelensky wrote Today the Ukrainian people are united and strong, and Ukraine-US friendship and partnership are stronger than ever!
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held a discourse with Zelensky taking stock of the situation. The meeting came as Ukraine pressed the West for more powerful weapons against Russia’s campaign in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s forces sought to dislodge the last Ukrainian troops in the battered port of Mariupol. It announced new military assistance for Ukraine and a renewed diplomatic push in the war-ravaged nation
Meanwhile, General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces claimed Russia has deployed Iskander-M mobile battlefield missile launchers within 60 km (40 miles) of the Ukrainian border.
Ukraine authorities on Sunday proposed a “special” round of negotiations with Russia to be held in the shadow of Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant to discuss the fate of the civilians and Ukrainian troops still trapped in the city, an adviser to Ukraine’s president said.The talks would aim to establish an immediate ceasefire in Mariupol, “multi-day” humanitarian corridors, and the freeing or swapping of Ukrainian fighters trapped in the Azovstal plant, presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a video address.
No humanitarian routes were established out of the southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Sunday, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said, blaming Russian forces for not holding their fire.Vereshchuk said that the Ukrainian side would try again on Monday to establish safe passage out of Mariupol.