Senior US diplomats in Ukraine, Kristina Kvien, and her team arrived in Kiev on Sunday after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised to soon reopen the US embassy in the Ukrainian capital during a visit last month, officials said.
The move is the latest step in the resumption of a full US diplomatic presence in Kiev, after US diplomats began returning to the city of Lviv last month after Russia left the country before security concerns in February.
A senior State Department official said the trip, scheduled to commemorate Victory Day in Europe on Sunday, was a temporary visit and did not mark the reopening of the embassy. Russia commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 on Victory Day Monday.
Blinken met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Sunday, telling him that a small group led by Kvien “went to Kiev to conduct a diplomatic engagement before the planned resumption of operations at the Kyiv Embassy.” US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
According to Price, the group was accompanied by US State Department security.
Videos posted on social media on Sunday showed a convoy entering the embassy complex.
In addition to Blinken’s visit with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the team is the first Biden executive delegation to visit the Ukrainian capital since the invasion. Blinken and Austin did not visit the embassy.
source: Noticias
