After several international visits to Ukraine, including the one last Thursday by Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, kyiv is preparing this Sunday to receive the arrival of the highest level of the US Administration since the Russian invasion began;
that of the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, and the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin.
As announced on Saturday by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, the two senior officials of the Joe Biden administration were scheduled to arrive in Ukraine to hold a meeting with the president while Russia maintains the bombing in the east and south of the country.
At the end of the afternoon of this Sunday, the scope of the meeting was unknown.
Nor has the White House issued any statement confirming or denying the visit.
Prudence and caution have always preceded the arrival of leaders in kyiv since the Russian invasion began.
Zelensky warned that he hoped the appointment would have concrete results "and not just gifts or cakes."
"We are waiting for specific things and specific weapons," Zelensky said.
“As soon as we have enough weapons, believe me, we will immediately take back this or that territory, which is temporarily occupied,” he said during a press conference in the kyiv metro on Saturday.
In a tweet posted on Sunday, President Biden wrote: “Two months after Putin launched an unprovoked and unwarranted attack on Ukraine, kyiv is still standing.
President Zelensky and his democratically elected government remain in power.
We will continue to support the Ukrainians in their struggle to defend their homeland."
Two months after Putin launched an unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine, Kyiv still stands.
President Zelenskyy and his democratically-elected government remain in power.
We will continue to support Ukrainians in their fight to defend their homeland.
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 24, 2022
Blinken and Austin's visit will be the first high-profile US trip to Ukraine since the war began on February 24 and comes two months after the invasion and at the height of attacks in regions bordering Russia.
It also comes as the situation in the shattered port city of Mariupol remains bleak.
The latest of many attempts to evacuate civilians has failed this weekend.
The situation facing the beleaguered unit of Ukrainian fighters sheltering in tunnels under a steel mill is becoming increasingly desperate.
Washington's silence on the visit contrasts with Zelensky's boast to reporters.
Many analysts have been struck by the silence maintained on other occasions about visits by foreign leaders for security reasons, in contrast to the announcement on this occasion the day before.
Zelenski took the opportunity to say that he will ask Blinken for the same thing that he asks of the European authorities or of Pedro Sánchez: concrete facts and not words, as he insisted on Saturday in front of dozens of international journalists.
Precisely this week, the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, will also be in Ukraine, who will arrive in kyiv on Thursday after passing through Turkey and Russia.
Precisely, the order of the trip has outraged Zelenski, who criticized that Guterres passes through Moscow before Ukraine and has reproached that this is not the logical order for a visit of this type.
"In Moscow there are no corpses in the streets," Zelensky reproached.
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