U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 14
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on May 14 in an unannounced diplomatic mission to reassure Ukraine that it has American support as it struggles to defend against increasingly intense Russian attacks.

The visit comes less than a month after Congress approved a long-delayed foreign assistance package that sets aside $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, much of which will go toward replenishing badly depleted artillery and Air Defense systems.

On his fourth trip to Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Mr. Blinken will underscore the Biden administration’s commitment to Ukraine’s defense and long-term security, U.S. officials said. They noted that since President Joe Biden signed the aid package late last month, the administration has already announced $1.4 billion in short-term military assistance and $6 billion in longer-term support.

It is “trying to really accelerate the tempo” of U.S. weapon shipments to Ukraine, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

“What I am going to suggest is that the level of intensity being exhibited right now in terms of moving stuff is at a 10 out of 10”, Sullivan told reporters at a White House briefing May 13.

Artillery, Air Defense interceptors and long-range ballistic missiles have already been delivered, some of them already to the front lines, said a senior U.S. official traveling with the secretary on an overnight train from Poland.

Blinken will “send a strong signal of reassurance” to Ukrainian leaders and civil society figures he will meet during his two-day visit, said the official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity ahead of Blinken’s meetings.

In a statement released after Blinken’s arrival, the State Department said he would meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top Ukrainian officials “to discuss battlefield updates, the impact of new U.S. security and economic assistance, long-term security and other commitments, and ongoing work to bolster Ukraine’s economic recovery.”

Delays in U.S. assistance, particularly since Israel’s war with Hamas began to preoccupy top administration officials, triggered deep concerns in Kyiv and Europe. Blinken, for example, has visited the Middle East seven times since the Gaza conflict began in October. His last trip to Kyiv was in September.

The U.S. official added that Blinken also would give a speech later on May 14 extolling Ukraine’s “strategic successes” in the war. It is intended to complement a Blinken address last year in Helsinki, Finland, deriding Russian President Vladimir Putin for Moscow’s strategic failures in launching the war.

Since the Helsinki speech, however, Russia has intensified its attacks, most noticeably as the U.S. House sat on the aid package for months without action, forcing a suspension in the provision of most U.S. assistance. Those attacks have increased in recent weeks as Russia has sought to take advantage of Ukrainian shortages in manpower and weapons while the new assistance is in transit.

Top Biden administration officials and Ukrainian National security officials held a call Monday “about the situation on the front, about the capabilities that they are most in need of, and a real triage effort to say, ’Get us this stuff this fast so that we can be in a position to effectively defend against the Russian onslaught,” Sullivan said.

Zelenskyy said over the weekend that “fierce battles” are taking place near the border in eastern and northeastern Ukraine as outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers try to push back a significant Russian ground offensive.

The Kremlin’s forces are aiming to exploit Ukrainian weaknesses before a big batch of new military aid for Kyiv from the U.S. and European partners arrives on the battlefield in the coming weeks and months, Ukrainian commanders and analysts say. That makes this period a window of opportunity for Moscow and one of the most dangerous for Kyiv in the two-year war, they say.

The new Russian push in the northeastern Kharkiv region and a drive into the eastern Donetsk region come after months when the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line barely budged. In the meantime, both sides have used long-range strikes in what largely became a war of attrition.

The senior U.S. official said despite some recent setbacks, Ukraine could still claim significant victories. Those include reclaiming some 50% of the territory Russian forces took in the early months of the war, boosting its economic standing and improving transportation and trade links, not least through military successes in the Black Sea.

The official acknowledged that Ukraine faces “a tough fight” and is “under tremendous pressure” but argued that Ukrainians “will become increasingly more confident” as the new U.S. and other Western assistance begins to surge.

Mr. Blinken said on May 12 that there was “no doubt” the monthslong delay in aid caused problems but that “we are doing everything we can to rush this assistance out there”.

“It’s a challenging moment,” he told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We are not going anywhere, and neither are more than some 50 countries that are supporting Ukraine. That will continue, and if Putin thinks he can outlast Ukraine, outlast its supporters, he’s wrong”.

A view shows damaged buildings at the site of a Russian drone strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine on April 23, 2024. Photo: Mayor of Odesa Hennadii Trukhanov via Telegram, via Reuters

Russia launched a drone attack on Ukraine that injured nine people in the Black Sea port of Odesa, four of them children, and also targeted Kyiv, the capital, Ukraine’s military officials said early on April 23.

The injured children, which include two infants, have been hospitalised, as well as three of the injured adults, the Governor of the Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Several residential buildings in the city were damaged and caught fire, he said. At least 14 apartments were damaged, the City Administration added.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched a total of 16 attack drones targeting Ukraine and two short-range Iskander ballistic missiles.

Air Defence systems destroyed 15 of the drones over Ukraine’s southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv, the central region of Cherkasy and the capital region of Kyiv, the Air Force said on Telegram. It did not say what happened to the missiles.

All the drones Russia launched on Kyiv were destroyed, Serhiy Popko, the head of the capital’s military administration, said on Telegram, adding that there were no reports of damage or injuries from the attack.

Also on Telegram, Mykolaiv’s Governor, Vitaly Kim, said wreckage from a downed drone damaged a commercial infrastructure building.

A prosecutor examines fragments of Russian missiles that were collected to investigate Russia’s military crimes in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Ukrainian forces facing a lack of munitions and manpower are digging in to resist Russian attack, mirroring the invaders’ strategy and showing Kyiv expects a drawn-out war.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that Kyiv’s troops were in an “ongoing process” of building around 2,000 kilometre of defensive lines.

Britain’s Defence Ministry said that the works included “anti-tank dragon’s teeth and ditches, infantry trenches, minefields and fortified defensive positions” in a post on X.

“The establishment of major defensive positions is indicative of the attritional character of the conflict… any attempt to conduct breaching operations will likely be accompanied with high losses,” the ministry added.

Built in 2023, Russia’s so-called “Surovikin Line” on occupied Ukrainian soil stalled Kyiv’s counteroffensive with its three layered defence in depth.

Such barriers are designed both to wear down enemy forces and prevent them holding ground even if they succeed in breaking through.

Also read: Russia systematically tortures Ukraine POWs, U.N. commission says

Ukraine’s version may be less elaborate and deep, but is needed to compensate for its ammunition shortage.

“Already, Ukrainian officials say that time is the key factor preventing them from building something resembling the… Surovikin line,” said Ivan Klyszcz, a researcher at Estonia’s International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS).

“Ammunition scarcity and diminishing morale have placed Ukraine squarely on the defensive,” he added.

Minimal gains

Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the second half of 2023, planned with backing from allies including the U.S., left Kyiv with minimal territorial gains and heavy losses. As the war has dragged on, defenders’ advantage over attackers has become starker than in many previous conflicts.

Mr. Zelenskyy’s lines “are designed to maximise the cost of casualties and fatalities for the Russians,” said Seth Jones, vice president of U.S.-based think-tank CSIS.

But Alexander Khramchikhin, a Russian military expert, said it was “proof that Ukraine has realised its offensive failed,”.

“Their success will depend on their quality” and on how much the construction effort is hobbled by Ukraine’s still-endemic corruption, he added.

“Do they have the manpower to build and defend them?” asked Vasily Kashin, of Moscow’s Higher School of Economics.

“Russia’s army has already broken through stronger Ukrainian fortifications at Avdiivka,” he added, referring to the frontline town in eastern region of Donetsk that fell to the Russians in mid-February.

Kyiv may be bowing to the present realities of the conflict, but its objective remains liberating its territory in the eastern Donbas region and the Crimean peninsula, which Russia took in 2014.

Ukrainian leaders hope that as the war wears on, Western sanctions will hobble Russia’s ability to sustain the effort.

Meanwhile in Moscow, the hope is that Western military and financial aid to Ukraine will dry up.

Both sides’ conjectures point to the same strategy for now: holding ground.

(from left) Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz and Donald Tusk at a press conference at the Chancellery in Berlin on March 15.
| Photo Credit: AFP

French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview published on March 16 evening that Western ground operations in Ukraine might be necessary “at some point”, days after meeting with German and Polish leaders.

Last month Mr. Macron refused to rule out putting troops on the ground in Ukraine, which prompted a stern response from Berlin and other European partners.

But the French President has not recanted from his position, but stressed that Western allies would not take the initiative.

“Maybe at some point — I don’t want it, I won’t take the initiative — we will have to have operations on the ground, whatever they may be, to counter the Russian forces,” Mr. Macron told newspaper Le Parisien in an interview conducted on March 15.

“France’s strength is that we can do it”.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reacted angrily to Mr. Macron’s earlier refusal to rule out sending troops to Ukraine and his pointed comments urging allies not to be “cowards”.

Mr. Macron met his German and Polish counterparts in Berlin on Friday, in a show of solidarity behind Kyiv.

After the meeting, Mr. Macron said the three countries of the so-called Weimar Triangle were “united” in their aim to “never let Russia win”.

Former Ukraine Army chief Valery Zaluzhny.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has approved the candidacy of former Army chief Valery Zaluzhny as Ambassador to Great Britain, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine sent a request to the British side for an agreement,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Mr. Zaluzhny, widely seen as a national hero for overseeing Ukraine’s war effort throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion, was replaced by ground forces commander Oleksandr Syrsky in February.

Ukraine has not had an Ambassador in Britain since Mr. Zelenskyy dismissed former envoy Vadym Prystaiko in July 2023 after he publicly criticised the President.

On Thursday British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps visited Kyiv, Mr. Zelenskyy said on social media platform X.

‘Bolstering defence’

“Our primary focus was on bolstering Ukraine’s air defence and long-range capabilities, as well as meeting other urgent needs for weapons and ammunition and developing joint weapon production,” he said.

Mr. Zaluzhny was not seen in the images of the meeting shared by the President.

The UN’s cultural organisation placed World Heritage Sites in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Lviv on its “in danger” list, saying they are at risk from the war sparked by Russia’s invasion of the country. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

The UN’s cultural organisation on Friday placed World Heritage Sites in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Lviv on its “in danger” list, saying they are at risk from the war sparked by Russia’s invasion.

The decision, taken at UNESCO’s annual world heritage committee meeting in Riyadh, is a step towards better protection of the historic sites, the UN’s cultural organisation said.

Their inclusion on the List of World Heritage in Danger “also opens the door to additional financial and technical aid in order to implement new emergency measures”, it said in a statement.

UNESCO said it had added Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral and the medieval buildings of the city’s Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery site to the list “due to the threat of destruction the Russian offensive poses”.

The decision had been taken because “optimal conditions are no longer met to fully guarantee the protection” of the sites “threatened by potential danger due to the war”.

The two historic sites have “remained under permanent threat since the start of the invasion on February 24, 2022”, the statement added.

Kyiv’s Saint Sophia cathedral dates back to the 11th century and is one of the city’s best-known landmarks.

Lviv, the western Ukrainian city near the Polish border, was founded in the late Middle Ages and its historic centre was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1998.

The move came after a January decision by UNESCO to add the centre of Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa to the World Heritage List.

In July, Odesa’s city centre and an Orthodox cathedral were damaged in a Russian strike condemned by UNESCO.

An explosion of a drone is seen in the city during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine on September 10, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russia attacked Ukraine with 32 drones overnight into Sunday, Kyiv military chiefs said, most of them aimed around the capital.

Air defences shot down 25 of them, they added, without accounting for the other seven.

The aerial assault comes at a time when national leaders are ramping up calls for extra Western support to repel the Russian invasion.

The military’s general staff said “the occupiers attacked Ukraine with 32 kamikaze drones… of which 25 were destroyed by Ukrainian air defence forces”.

“The Russian occupiers directed most of the attack UAVs to the Kyiv region,” they said.

“Drones entered the capital in groups and from different directions,” Sergiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, wrote on Telegram.

Debris fell in several districts, damaging an apartment in a multi-storey building, as well as road surfaces and power lines, he added, saying one person was injured.

Russia systematically targeted Ukrainian cities early in the invasion launched last year, but massive strikes have become less frequent as Moscow’s stockpiles dwindle and Ukraine bolsters its air defences.

Last month, Kyiv destroyed more than 20 drones and missiles in what it called the “most powerful strike” on the capital since spring.

Speeches by several senior Ukrainian officials released Saturday drew a picture of a country at war held back by allies who had failed to grasp the scale and urgency of the crisis.

Newly appointed Defence Minister Rustem Umerov called for more military equipment.

“We are grateful for all the support provided… We need more heavy weapons,” Mr. Umerov said in his speech. But he added: “We need them today. We need them now.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the slow delivery of Western weapons was hampering the counteroffensive against Russian positions in the east and south of the country.

Deputy Intelligence Chief Vadym Skibitsky estimated Saturday that Russia has more than 420,000 soldiers in the east and south of Ukraine, including Crimea.

Mr. Skibitsky also said Russia had for a month been actively launching attacks from Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.

“Drones deployed in Crimea are used against our ports of Izmail and Reni” used as alternative export hubs, particularly since the expiry of the deal allowing grain exports on the Black Sea.

Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in the east and south of the country in June but has come up against fierce resistance from entrenched Russian forces.

Intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory were mainly aimed at military targets.

“All (the targets) are enterprises of the military-industrial complex,” said Mr. Budanov. “This is the difference that distinguishes us from Russians.”

Attacks on Russian territory, which were rare at the beginning of the offensive, have intensified in recent months, with Kyiv increasingly claiming responsibility for them.

Russian authorities have reported civilian casualties from some Ukrainian attacks.

Ukrainian leaders also deplored the lack of progress on setting up an international tribunal to try Russia’s leaders, and on the transfer of frozen Russian assets.

“Unfortunately, we are in a kind of deadlock on both,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

He said the G7 group favoured a hybrid tribunal based on Ukrainian legislation.

‘A lack of will’

But this would not allow for the immunity of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin or Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to be stripped – an unacceptable option for Kyiv.

Ukrainian officials are arguing for an international court resembling the post-World War II Nuremberg tribunal.

There has been insufficient progress too, on the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine for use in the country’s reconstruction, Mr. Kuleba added.

“After a year and a half, I’m still hearing from Europe and America: we are working on it,” said Mr. Kuleba, who addressed a conference in Kyiv Friday, but whose comments were only released on Saturday.

“There is a lack of will to come to a conclusion. So we have to change that.”

Since Moscow’s invasion in February 2022, Western sanctions have led to the freezing of some 300 billion euros ($320 billion) of Central Bank of Russia foreign exchange reserves around the world.