The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken promised Monday to a senior Ukrainian official that the United States’ support for Kiev would continue, including during the winter, when Russian strikes on essential infrastructure are once again expected .
Antony Blinken met with Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during a brief stopover in Washington for the secretary of state returning from another Middle East tour, and ahead of the Asia-Pacific summit in APEC in San Francisco.
Despite the world’s attention currently focused on the war between Israel and Hamas, President Joe Biden has pledged to maintain tens of billions of dollars of U.S. aid to Ukraine so that the country can fight the invasion of Russia, despite the opposition of a fringe of the Republican Party to this aid.
“In all of our conversations with the Ukrainian government, we have emphasized that we will continue to stand with them,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.
Antony Blinken discussed with Andriy Yarmak “the measures we can take together with Ukraine to strengthen its infrastructure ahead of the coming winter,” said Matthew Miller.
“Of course, we saw last winter that Russia was trying to destroy energy sites in Ukraine. They might try again,” he added.
Washington is the largest provider of military aid to kyiv, having committed tens of billions of dollars since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Aware of the risk of weariness among part of the American political class, Democratic President Joe Biden has decided to combine his new request for aid for Ukraine – more than 61 billion dollars – with that for Israel, around 14 billion .
Andriy Yermak wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that he thanked Antony Blinken for the support of the United States.
The senior official also claimed that Ukrainians were “touched” by the Halloween costumes worn by the secretary of state’s children.
Antony Blinken’s son went to a White House Halloween event wearing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s signature khaki clothing, while his daughter was dressed in the colors of Ukraine’s flag, yellow and blue.