Ukrainian leaders praise U.S. officials, ask UN for aid

WASHINGTON — Ukrainian leaders on Sunday praised the visit of top Biden administration officials to the besieged country, describing it as a critical symbol of U.S. support against Russia’s invasion.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Sunday. The meeting comes as a number of European heads of state, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have visited Zelenskyy in Kyiv in a show of western support for Ukraine.

Yevheniia Kravchuk, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” said Blinken and Austin’s visit was a “signal to Russia that Ukraine will not be left alone with this war.”

Kravchuk repeated the calls of Zelenskyy for the United States and other European allies to continue providing high-grade weapons to the Ukrainian forces as Russia continues to bombard the country’s eastern Donbas region.

“We are capable of winning and we’re capable of kicking Russians out because that’s the way … to end this war,” Kravchuk said.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” said Blinken and Austin’s visit is “a very important political symbol and a symbol of uniting.”

Shmyhal said the visit would allow the U.S. cabinet officials to see with “their own eyes what’s happened, which atrocities and war crimes” the Russians have committed.

Shmyhal, who met with President Joe Biden and other top U.S. officials in Washington last week, said Ukraine will continue to press NATO allied nations for more ammunition, medical supplies and financial assistance to address mines left behind by Russian forces who retreated from the surrounding western suburbs of Kyiv.

“We need also support by finances, by technologies for mine cleaning activity, because more than 120,000 square miles are under mining and bombs,” Shmyhal said. “Some of the families going back to their houses, opening the washing machine or freezers … Garages, basements, everything is mined by Russians. And many people, civilians, people are dying now on the liberated territories because of this mining of their houses.”

Igor Zhovkva, a top aide to Zelenskyy, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” praised the United States for aiding Ukraine with the delivery of weapons, but he criticized the United Nations as a whole for not intervening more to stop Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilians.

“The UN is lagging behind … in terms of humanitarian support to my country," Zhovkva said. "So, it would be good if the UN secretary-general would concentrate on these things as well.”

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.