Secretary Blinken continues visit to Ukraine, Russia continues attacks

2023-09-07 16:42:17, Kosova & Bota CNA

Secretary Antony Blinken continued his visit to Ukraine on Thursday as Russia continued its airstrikes against it. A day after announcing a new $1 billion in aid, the top US diplomat also expressed optimism that President Biden's administration will ensure Washington's continued support for Kiev.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States wants to help Ukraine not only survive Russian aggression, but also thrive as a state. Mr. Blinken announced an additional $1 billion in US aid to Ukraine.

Secretary Blinken met with Ukrainian military officials on Thursday to inspect military equipment donated by Washington.

"We greatly value and appreciate the courage and strength of the border forces, as well as the national police, and I am very proud of the fact that the State Department has been your close partner," said Mr. Blinken.

He visited a bunker used by the army in the Kiev region.

This is the second day of Secretary Blinken's visit to Ukraine. A day ago, he and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, visited a recently reopened restaurant of the American company "McDonald's" in Kiev.

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But despite efforts to convey a sense of normalcy, intensified Russian attacks on Ukraine that continued throughout Mr. Blinken's visit serve as a reminder of Moscow's unstoppable aggression. Ukraine's military said on Thursday it had destroyed 25 of the 33 drones Russia used to attack the Sumy and Odesa regions overnight, injuring at least one person.

There were also Russian airstrikes in Kiev just three hours before Mr Blinken arrived by train from Poland.

But the worst attack on Wednesday was the one on a market in the eastern town of Kostian-tyn-ivkas in which 17 people, including a child, were killed and dozens injured.

"Yesterday, we saw the bombing of a market, 17 people or more killed, many more injured. Why is a market attacked? This is what Ukrainians are living every day," said Mr. Blinken.

Mr. Blinken also expressed optimism that President Biden's administration will manage to maintain support for Ukraine in Washington as well.

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At the Capitol, Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty told reporters he would like to see more support from US allies for Ukraine.

"I would like to see an announcement from all NATO members, saying that they are ready to increase support. I just got back from a trip to Europe and we encouraged our NATO allies to actually increase their support and I would like to see that happen," said Republican Senator Hagerty.

The United States is the largest donor of military aid to Ukraine. But according to the Kiel Institute, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic are making large financial contributions to Ukraine, relative to the size of their economy./ VOA