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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that American military aid on its way to Ukraine would make a “real difference” on the battlefield. The comments came as the top diplomat made an unannounced visit to Kyiv to reassure its ally facing a fierce new Russian offensive.
Moscow’s troops have captured around 100 to 125 square kilometres in the Kharkiv region in recent days. This includes at least seven villages, according to open-source monitoring analysts, with thousands of civilians fleeing the fighting.
Kremlin forces have also been making a concerted push in the east seeking to drive deeper into partly-occupied Donetsk, a region just inside the Ukrainian border in Donetsk. Ukrainian general staff said in a report Russia launched 24 assaults on Pokrovsk.
Analysts have called this moment one of the most dangerous for Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked on Tuesday for more air defence systems to protect civilians under Russian fire in the northeast.
“We know this is a challenging time,” Blinken said in the Ukrainian capital where he met with Zelenskyy. But American military aid is “going to make a real difference against the ongoing Russian aggression on the battlefield," he added.
The visit comes less than a month after Congress approved a long-delayed foreign assistance package that sets aside €55.5 billion in aid for Ukraine. Most of this will go toward replenishing badly depleted artillery and air defence systems.
Blinken said aid “is now on the way", with some already arriving in Ukraine.
Moscow’s renewed offensive in the northeast region of Kharkiv is the most significant border incursion since the early days of the war. It comes after months of the roughly 1,000-kilometer front line barely budging with more than 7,500 civilians evacuated from the area, according to authorities.
At the same time, the Kremlin’s forces are expanding their push to the northern border regions of Sumy and Chernihiv, Ukrainian officials say. Kyiv's outgunned and outnumbered soldiers are struggling to hold them back.
Governor of Kharkiv Oblast said troops fought street to street on the outskirts of Vovchansk, which is among the largest towns in the Kharkiv area. Two civilians were killed in the Russian shelling on Tuesday, he said.
'Situation is dire'
The UN Human Rights Office said the battles are taking a heavy toll.
“We are deeply concerned at the plight of civilians in Ukraine,” said Liz Throssell, spokeswoman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “In the Kharkiv region, the situation is dire.”
Zelenskyy thanked Blinken for the US aid but said more is necessary. This includes two Patriot air defence systems urgently needed to protect Kharkiv. “The people are under attack: civilians, warriors, everybody. They’re under Russian missiles,” he said.
Blinken, on his fourth trip to Kyiv since Russian troops rolled over the border, told Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal that the US intends to support Kyiv beyond the war's end.
“The United States is determined, determined to help Ukraine succeed, succeed both in the battlefield victory but also succeed, as we would say, in winning the peace and building the strongest possible Ukraine,” he said.
kraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, fourth left, speaks during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, third right, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. AP/Ukrainian Presidential Press Office
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the administration is “trying to really accelerate the tempo” of US weapon shipments. But delays in US assistance, particularly since the Israel-Hamas war began and preoccupying top administration officials, have triggered deep concerns in Kyiv and Europe.
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Two miners were killed and one remains missing after a cave-in at the Myslowice-Wesola coal mine in southern Poland early on Tuesday.
Authorities say 12 people were also injured.
The cave-in happened around 3:30 am local time, some 870 metres underground in an area where 15 miners were working, authorities said.
Two of the miners located by rescuers and brought to the surface were declared dead, while one was being taken to the hospital.
Eleven other miners were rescued earlier from the mine with various injuries, and nine of them remain hospitalized.
Rescuers were still searching for one missing miner but had no contact with him. Six teams of rescuers were working in the area.
The accident happened near the coal face, an area especially exposed to cave-ins or explosions of methane gas, which is present in the rock in many Polish coal mines.
It is the second cave-in at the Myslowice-Wesola mine this year, following one on 17 April that killed one miner. Two other coal mine workers were killed in accidents inside other mines in Poland this year, while in 2023, 15 miners were killed in on-the-job accidents.
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At least two French prison officers were reported dead as four armed men ambushed their van on inmate transfer duty in the country's northwest on Tuesday.
The incident occurred at the Incarville toll booth near Val-de-Reuil in Normandy. The two officers, including the driver, died in the shootout, while three others were injured.
The freed inmate was being transported from the town of Rouen to Evreux. According to the domestic press, the detainee is known as 30-year-old Mohammed Amra. He is said to have been convicted of burglary and is known for cases linked to drug trafficking.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron and Minister of Justice éric Dupond-Moretti both expressed their condolences to the families and colleagues of the slain officers.
"Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime so that justice can be done in the name of the French people," Macron said on X.
The national road R154 linking Val-de-Reuil and Artenay (near Orléans) has been closed following the incident.
The organised crime office and judicial police are currently investigating the attack.