Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits Kiev and meets Zelensky

Ukraine's President, Vladimir Zelensky, met on Sunday with Speaker of the United States Congress, Nancy Pelosi, who arrived today with a visit to Kyiv.

• "I am grateful for this strong support for Ukraine," Zelensky said during the meeting.
• A video recording of the meeting with Zelensky and Pelosi was posted on the Ukrainian President's page on the "Telegram" platform.

Officials: Blinken assures Zelensky US diplomats return to Ukraine "this week"

U.S. Foreign and Defense Ministers Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin held talks in Kiev on their first visit to Ukraine since the start of the Russian military operation, U.S. officials confirmed.

1. During their visit on Sunday, Blinken and Austin expressed their solidarity with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
2. During the visit, the ministers announced the gradual return of United States diplomats to Ukraine as of "this week".
3.  and the allocation of more than $700 million in additional military assistance, both direct and indirect, including about $300 million to help the country buy the necessary weapons.
4.  a senior foreign minister said.

Payments will also be made to Ukraine's regional allies who need it after they send weapons to their neighbour.

The official continued to journalists waiting for Blinken and Austin on the Polish side of the border that "

since the start of the hostilities, we have had a cross-border team in Poland taking over this work on our behalf." "Starting this week, members of this group will be able to travel daily to Ukraine," he added, adding that "ultimately, they will resume their presence in Kyiv."

Blinken announced that in the coming days, U.S. President Joe Biden plans to nominate the current U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia, Bridget Brink, as Ambassador to Kyiv, who has been vacant since 2019.

Warnings of global war due to US strategy to weaken Russia

1. Foreign Policy warned that Russia's weakening strategy, chosen by the current US administration, could lead to the Ukrainian crisis becoming a global war.
2. The magazine wrote in an article published Friday that the US president.
3. Joe Biden, by using a "strategy of weakening Russia" could turn the war in Ukraine into a global war. " Earlier this week.
4. Biden and his allies made a series of radical changes that turn their policy of helping Ukraine defend against Russia into "a policy of undermining Russia's own power and influence."

According to the magazine, a number of experts express concerns that the West in doing so "leaves Russian President Vladimir Putin with no choice but to surrender, or to redouble his military efforts, making it more likely that his war will expand beyond Ukraine."

Sean Monaghan, an expert at the Center for International Research and Strategy in Washington, was quoted as saying: 

• "In the opinion of the Kremlin, the West seeks to damage Russia. That was going on unopenly, and now they're talking about it publicly.
• If you combine this with Biden's comment in Poland last month that this man (Putin) cannot stay in power, it all turns this regional war into a wider confrontation.
• and it could make it more difficult, or even impossible at the moment, to negotiate a settlement to end the war in Ukraine. "

According to former CIA analyst George Benn, the Washington administration risks forgetting that "the main national interest of the United States is to prevent a nuclear dispute with Russia.

1. " He added: "Russia has the opportunity to make sure that if you lose, everyone loses too. That might be what we're heading towards right now. 
2. This juncture can be dangerous. "

The magazine also quoted a statement by a European diplomat who refused to give his name as saying: "It is one thing to practice a policy of weakening Putin, but another is to formally declare it. We must therefore provide Putin with an opportunity to reach a political settlement, so these (overt Western) statements are probably irresponsible. "