US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Ukraine and expressed the White House's plan to provide long-term support for Kyiv.
On Thursday, the American official wrapped up the second day of his visit to the war-torn country, saying he was struck by the horrific human cost of Russia's unprovoked invasion. Blinken toured Yahidne School, formerly an elementary school whose basement held Ukrainian hostages when it was under Russian control.
Antony Blinken Visits Ukraine
Since then, it has been converted into a museum, and Blinken said that he saw the small room where people were tortured, which gave the war's casualty figures a human dimension. During an interview, the Secretary of State said that the situation boils down to the lives and stories of the men, women, and children who were in prison in the basement of the building.
He said that the people detained in the area were held there for a month and locked up inside a room that was not even fit for one person for human habitation. Blinken added that he witnessed the extraordinary resilience of the Ukrainian people who have been quietly rebuilding in Yahidne and wherever else they can, per the Voice of America News.
The American official also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin needed to come to terms with the fact that he had already lost the war and must join other nations at the negotiating table to end the conflict to avoid more loss of lives.
On the other hand, Russia has blamed the United States and NATO for prolonging the war by supporting Ukraine. Blinken also visited a Ukrainian border guard site on Thursday on the outskirts of Kyiv. It was there where he presented four mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles.
They were part of the 190 the US will deliver to Ukraine in the coming months. The Secretary of State also visited a hydroelectric dam and met with a Ukrainian team responsible for clearing unexploded Russian ordinance at a farm where corn was being grown for export.
Additional Military Aid Package
During Blinken's third visit to Ukraine, he also doubled down on US support for Kyiv's counteroffensive against Russia's military forces. He also announced more than a billion dollars of additional US aid to Ukraine.
The Secretary of State also underscored the need for an audience back home of why the US needs to commit billions of dollars more to help Kyiv beat Putin's aggression. He said that the US is "determined to continue to walk side-by-side" with Ukraine, according to CNN.
Blinken's visit to Ukraine comes after the American government announced a new aid package for Kyiv to support its fight against Russia. The package would include $175 million for weapons, bringing the total security assistance of the US to Kyiv to more than $43.2 billion since the beginning of Moscow's war.
In a statement, the Pentagon said that the latest security assistance package would include depleted uranium tank ammunition. These would be used with the stalwart Abrams tanks to bolster Ukraine's military forces, said CNBC.
