As Blinken Visits Kyiv to Show Support, Russia Makes a Deadly Attack

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken traveled to Ukraine’s capital on Wednesday and met with President Voloydmyr Zelensky, delivering a U.S. vote of confidence — and the promise of extra support — at the same time as Russia made one of many deadliest assaults of the battle on civilians.

A Russian missile struck Kostyantynivka, an japanese metropolis close to the entrance strains, killing not less than 17 individuals and wounding not less than 32 others, and extra would possibly nonetheless be trapped within the rubble, in response to Ukrainian officers. They mentioned the assault hit an out of doors market at about 2 p.m., when it was busy with distributors and customers, whereas Mr. Blinken was in Kyiv.

“A regular market. Shops. A pharmacy. People who did nothing wrong. Many wounded. Unfortunately, the number of casualties and the injured may rise,” Mr. Zelensky wrote on Telegram. For anybody world wide to proceed to take care of Russia, he added, “means turning a blind eye” to atrocities.

Early within the morning, Russia launched a volley of missiles and drones, a number of of them at Kyiv, hours earlier than Mr. Blinken arrived, the Ukrainian army mentioned, together with a drone that killed not less than one particular person in Izmail, a small port metropolis on the Danube River in southern Ukraine.

Mr. Blinken’s journey, which was not introduced upfront for safety causes, got here as Mr. Zelensky’s authorities wages an more and more public struggle towards the official corruption that has lengthy been endemic in his nation.

Some lawmakers within the United States and Europe have cited that drawback — in addition to the grueling tempo of Kyiv’s counteroffensive to retake Russian-occupied territory — in voicing doubts about persevering with to spend billions to arm and assist Ukraine. That has put stress on Mr. Zelensky and the Biden administration to indicate progress towards graft.

“We’re engaged in assisting the government of Ukraine on anticorruption efforts and on efforts to ensure accountability and full transparency of all the assistance we’re providing, as well as the security of U.S.-provided defense articles and technologies,” Mr. Blinken mentioned at a news convention after his assembly with Mr. Zelensky, who didn’t participate within the news convention.

“President Zelensky and I discussed these issues today, and the importance to Ukraine’s democratic future of continued reforms and the fight against corruption,” he mentioned.

After a sequence of army procurement and enlistment scandals, this week Mr. Zelensky dismissed his protection minister, Oleksii Reznikov, the largest shake-up in his administration throughout a yr and a half of battle. The Ukrainian Parliament on Wednesday confirmed the appointment of his substitute, Rustem Umerov.

Mr. Blinken, making his fourth journey to Kyiv for the reason that invasion, said repeatedly that American backing was unshaken. “Ukraine’s security is integral to the security of the entire Euro-Atlantic community and indeed it’s integral to security around the world, because of the principles that are being challenged here,” he mentioned on the news convention, with Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian international minister.

He introduced greater than $1 billion in new support, together with $665.5 million in army and different safety help, drawing on spending authority already granted by Congress to the Biden administration. He famous that a lot of the help was meant not for the present struggle however for long-term safety and rebuilding Ukrainian society.

“For the first time we are transferring to Ukraine assets seized from sanctioned Russian oligarchs, which will now be used to support Ukrainian military veterans,” he mentioned. “Those who have enabled Putin’s war of aggression should pay for it.”

In all, the United States has provided $43 billion in gear, together with weaponry, coaching and different army and regulation enforcement support, since Russia’s full-scale invasion started in February 2022, and greater than $20 billion in financial and humanitarian support. President Biden has requested Congress to authorize a further $24 billion.

The Defense Department mentioned on Wednesday that the administration plans to ship ammunition made with depleted uranium to Ukraine — the most recent in a sequence of escalations in what sorts of weaponry the United States provides to Kyiv. The British authorities mentioned in March that it might give Ukraine depleted uranium munitions.

Rounds made with uranium, used for many years by the United States and different international locations, are more practical at penetrating armor than these made with different metals, and extra more likely to ignite fires. Some U.S. tanks have armor that comes with depleted uranium.

The metallic, a byproduct of constructing gas for nuclear reactors, is mildly radioactive. Some advocates have expressed considerations that extended publicity may trigger sickness, or that spent ammunition may trigger environmental contamination, however the Pentagon says these fears are unfounded.

The Biden administration has repeatedly resisted after which relented on sending weapons methods to Ukraine — HIMARS rocket artillery, Patriot air protection missiles, Abrams tank, F-16 fighter jets and cluster munitions, amongst others.

Mr. Blinken mentioned he and Mr. Zelensky had mentioned concepts for a long-term safety partnership that the Ukrainian chief has mentioned ought to resemble the American alliance with Israel. Such an association, which 28 different international locations have additionally expressed curiosity in having with Ukraine, would offer it with some assurances wanting becoming a member of the NATO alliance, which some member international locations contemplate a far-off aim.

Erin Mendell contributed reporting from Seoul, and Marc Santora from Odesa, Ukraine.