Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US Secretary of State and Defense Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin met in Kyiv on Sunday, the Ukrainian presidency announced.
“The Americans are in Kyiv today. They are talking to the president right now,” said Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Zelenskyy, in an interview broadcast on YouTube.
The US has not commented on the trip or even confirmed it would take place possibly given the security concerns associated with a trip to the Ukrainian capital by senior government officials.
This is the first meeting between the President of Ukraine and US officials in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
The talks on Sunday are primarily about US arms sales to Ukraine.
“The friendship and cooperation between Ukraine and the US is stronger than ever,” Zelenskyy tweeted, without elaborating.
Arestovich, in turn, reiterated on YouTube the Ukrainian government’s desire to receive “assault weapons.” “As long as we don’t fight back, there will be a ‘new Bucha’ every day,” he said, referring to the city northwest of Kyiv that has become a symbol of atrocities committed during Russia’s occupation of the region in March were committed.
“American officials wouldn’t come here unless they were willing to donate [armas]”, he explained.
On Saturday, Zelenskyy said he was “grateful” to the US government for helping Ukraine, but reiterated that he wanted “even heavier and more powerful weapons” against the Russian army.
Oleksiy Arestovich also claimed that in Mariupol, a southern Ukrainian port city largely controlled by Russian forces, “defense lines are on the verge of collapse” where the last of the Ukrainian fighters along with civilians barricaded themselves at a large steel plant in Azovstal.