Blinken arrives in Kyiv to show US support – DW – 05/14/2024

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the southern Russian border region of Belgorod, said an air attack caused one casualty and damage to 24 houses. 

“There is one casualty — a woman has received a shrapnel wound to her spine,” Gladkov said. 

Earlier on Tuesday, Russian news agencies reported explosions following a missile alert.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defense systems shot down 25 missiles over Belgorod. The ministry said the missiles had been fired from Ukraine. 

This comes after a residential building in Belgorod collapsed in a missile attack on Sunday, killing at least 15 people, according to Russian authorities. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has tempered expectations for the Ukraine peace conference to be held in Switzerland in June.

“Nobody should have exaggerated expectations. We are not negotiating the end of the war there,” Scholz said in an interview with the German news magazine Stern.

“At best, it’s the start of a process that could lead to direct talks between Ukraine and Russia. In Switzerland, it will be about the safety of nuclear power plants, grain exports, the issue of prisoner exchanges and the necessary taboo on the use of nuclear weapons. Once again, this is all still in its infancy,” Scholz said.

The chancellor was disappointed with the involvement of European countries in the war in Ukraine after his appeals for more arms deliveries. It is “frankly still not enough,” he said.

“That is depressing, because Ukraine urgently needs more air defense systems. Putin obviously wants to destroy Ukraine’s infrastructure,” Scholz added.

US President Joe Biden has signed a ban on Russian enriched uranium into law, the White House said, in Washington’s latest effort to disrupt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The ban on imports of the fuel for nuclear power plants begins in about 90 days, although it allows the Department of Energy to issue waivers if there are supply concerns.

Russia is the world’s leading supplier of enriched uranium, and about 24% of the enriched uranium used in US nuclear power plants comes from there.

The legislation also releases about $2.7 billion (€2.5 billion) in funding provided in previous legislation to expand the US uranium fuel industry.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv by train early Tuesday morning on an unannounced diplomatic mission to reassure Ukraine that it has American support as Russia attacks the northeastern Kharkiv region.

The visit comes less than a month after Congress approved a long-delayed foreign aid package that provides $61 billion (€57 billion) in assistance to Ukraine, much of it to replenish badly depleted artillery and air defense systems.

Blinken hopes to “send a strong signal of reassurance to the Ukrainians who are obviously in a very difficult moment,” said a US official who briefed reporters traveling with Blinken on condition of anonymity.

In a statement released after Blinken’s arrival, the State Department said he would meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top Ukrainian officials “to discuss battlefield updates, the impact of new US security and economic assistance, long-term security and other commitments, and ongoing work to bolster Ukraine’s economic recovery.”

dh/jsi (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)