Blinken is the latest U.S. official to visit Ukraine this year.
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At least 16 people were killed on Wednesday when a Russian missile slammed into a city in eastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as the U.S. secretary of state visited Kyiv in a show of American support against Moscow’s invasion.
Mr. Zelensky said the attack on the city of Kostyantynivka, which is near the front line in eastern Ukraine, had hit shops in the city, adding that “the number of casualties and the injured may rise.” The toll made it one of the deadliest Russian attacks in Ukraine in recent months.
At the same time, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken was in Kyiv, meeting with Ukrainian officials on an unannounced visit during which he was expected to announce more than $1 billion in new American aid to Ukraine.
The U.S. aid is expected to include financial and humanitarian assistance, a senior State Department official told reporters traveling with Mr. Blinken. The official said that the United States would also continue to assist Ukraine with weaponry for its counteroffensive, launched in June, to help breach Russian minefields and clear trenches.
Mr. Blinken was expected to meet with Mr. Zelensky on Wednesday evening. His visit comes as the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the southeast has gained some traction after three months of grueling, bloody fighting. Ukrainian troops have broken through a main line of Russia’s defenses in one location, Ukraine’s Army has said, and are turning their attention to breaking through in another heavily defended patch of territory.
The State Department official cited Ukraine’s “impressive progress” on the battlefield in recent weeks. But swift gains are unlikely, military analysts say, and Ukraine’s war effort will hinge on enduring support and weapons transfers from Western allies including the United States, by far the largest donor to Ukraine.
“We want to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs, not only to succeed in the counteroffensive, but has what it needs for the long term, to make sure that it has a strong deterrent,” Mr. Blinken told reporters in Kyiv.
His visit also comes after a flurry of reports of financial mismanagement and the resignation of Ukraine’s minister of defense, Oleksii Reznikov, this week. He was replaced by Rustem Umerov, who has been the chairman of Ukraine’s State Property Fund. Mr. Umerov’s appointment was approved by Ukraine’s Parliament on Wednesday.
Mr. Blinken’s visit is the latest by a high-level American official to the Ukrainian capital since President Biden made the trip in February. Hours before he arrived, the sound of Ukrainian air defense missiles rang out in the city and the entire country was put under an air alert as Ukraine’s military said that Russia had launched a volley of missiles and drones. All of the missiles aimed at the Kyiv region were shot down, it said, but officials said that a drone attack had killed at least one person in a port city on the Danube River.
Soon after arriving in Kyiv, Mr. Blinken was introduced to Patron, a mine-sniffing Jack Russell Terrier that is a much-loved mascot for Ukraine’s war effort. Mr. Blinken petted and held Patron, a video posted by RBK, a Ukrainian news outlet, showed.
In addition to the aid announcement, the United States and Ukraine are in talks over a long-term security partnership that Mr. Zelensky has said he would like to resemble Washington’s alliance with Israel.
Ukraine is negotiating similar arrangements with more than two dozen countries. The State Department official said the effort is aimed at “putting global support on a long-term, sustainable path. And it’s about making it absolutely clear to Putin that he can’t wait us out,” the official added, referring to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Erin Mendell contributed reporting.
— Andrew E. Kramer reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine
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