US, UK top diplomats vow Ukraine victory as they discuss long-range arms

AFP | Kyiv

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

Email: editor@newsofbahrain.com

The US and British top diplomats vowed yesterday to work together for Ukraine’s victory as they discussed further easing rules on firing Western weapons into Russia, whose alleged acquisition of Iranian missiles has raised new fears.

In a rare joint trip, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the nine-hour train from Poland to Kyiv alongside Foreign Secretary David Lammy, whose two-month-old Labour government has vowed to keep up Britain’s role as a key defender of Ukraine.

At three-way talks with their Ukrainian counterpart, Blinken said the visit sent a “strong message that we are committed to Ukraine’s success, committed to Ukraine’s victory”.

Lammy also promised British support until the war of “Russian imperialism and aggression come to an end” and called attacks that have killed Ukrainians “horrific, barbaric, unbelievable”.

“The only person that gains from any sense that we are not together” is Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lammy said.

Paying his fifth visit to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion, Blinken dropped by a celebrated restaurant to sample borscht, a bright red beetroot soup and Ukrainian national dish.

The trip comes at a fraught time for Ukraine, with Russia advancing on the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region and a month after Kyiv launched a shock counter-offensive into Russia’s Kursk region.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has ramped up his requests over recent months to the West to provide weapons with more firepower and fewer restrictions.