Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that he will meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Kyiv on Sunday as Russian forces continue their relentless attacks in the city of Mariupol.
In a press conference conducted in a subway station, Zelensky said that the top US officials' visit to Ukraine was not a "secret."
Zelensky added that he expects United States President Joe Biden "to come" and talk to them "when the security allows," per a CNN report.
Biden, who has previously suggested he wanted to go to Ukraine earlier this month, said that he was consulting with his team about sending a key official of his cabinet to the country.
As the Russian occupation enters its third month, Biden stated last week that the US would deliver another $800 million in military aid to Ukraine. However, White House press secretary Jen Psaki stated that there are no arrangements for Biden to visit Ukraine.
Russian Missile Strikes In Mariupol Kills Eight People, Including A Baby
Meanwhile, Russian forces in Ukraine tried to storm a steel plant housing soldiers and civilians in the southern city of Mariupol on Saturday in an attempt to crush the last corner of resistance in a place of deep symbolic and strategic value to Moscow, Ukrainian officials said.
The reported assault on the eve of Orthodox Easter came after the Kremlin claimed its military had seized all of the shattered city except for the Azovstal plant, and as Russian forces pounded other cities and towns in southern and eastern Ukraine.
According to an Al Jazeera report, Zelensky stated that Russian rocket attacks in Odesa killed eight people, including a three-month-old kid.
As he conveyed the information to the journalists, Zelensky held back tears as he said he shared the anguish of every Ukrainian who had lost children in Russia's assault.
A Ukrainian official reported that Russian forces fired not less than six cruise missiles at Odesa.
Last Stronghold
The status of the Ukrainians in Mariupol's massive coastal steel plant remained unclear; early Saturday, a Ukrainian military unit published a video supposedly recorded two days earlier in which women and children were hiding underground, some for as long as two months.
The Associated Press reported that Russia claimed control of several villages in the eastern Donbas region and destroyed 11 Ukrainian military targets overnight, including three artillery storage facilities, while the assault on the port continued. Attacks by the Russians also hit residential areas.
Mariupol has been a primary Russian objective since the invasion began on February 24 and has grown in prominence as the battle progressed. After a nearly two-month siege that reduced much of the city to a smoldering ruin, securing control of the city would be Russia's largest achievement yet.
Ukrainian authorities said that before the war, the population of Mariupol was around 430,000. At present, the number of people remaining there is estimated to be over 100,000, with scarcity in food and water supply. Reportedly, there were more than 20,000 civilians were killed in the city during the Russian invasion.
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