A US delegation led by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Astin pledged to increase US military support for Ukraine, during their visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in an unprecedented step since the outbreak of Russia's war on Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Washington had developed a strategy to support Ukraine, stressing that Russia had failed to control Ukraine, he said.

Blinken added in a press conference on the Ukrainian-Polish border with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that Washington will continue to assist the Ukrainians and enhance their capabilities in the battle, revealing that US diplomats will return to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv next week.

In turn, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that Russia had lost a lot of its military capabilities and forces in its war on Ukraine.

He added that Washington will help Ukraine to achieve victory in its battle against Russia, with a focus on providing everything necessary.

Austin pointed out that his country is doing everything in its power to deliver the required weapons and other types of military support to Ukraine.

He explained that there are no American forces on the ground, which makes the task of tracing the path of weapons and ensuring that they do not fall into the hands of opponents is not possible.

And US media reported that US Secretary of State and Defense Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Washington would provide $322 million to Ukraine as part of new foreign military aid, bringing the total security assistance to Ukraine since the start of the war to about $3.7 billion.

The Washington Post reported that during the meeting, which took place yesterday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin briefed the Ukrainian president on the details of what Washington promised to provide to the Ukrainian forces of howitzers and continuous training on US artillery systems.


A US State Department official said that the aid provided by Washington will provide support for the capabilities that Ukraine needs, and will help it transition to more advanced weapons and air defense systems.

CNN quoted a senior US Defense Department official as saying that President Biden was very clear that there would be no US forces fighting in Ukraine, and that includes Ukrainian airspace.

The US official added that the visit of the US foreign and defense ministers to Kiev does not foreshadow an actual participation by Washington in the war.

CNN quoted the US official as saying that Minister Blinken told Ukrainian officials that President Biden would nominate the current US ambassador to Slovakia as ambassador to Kyiv.

Russian protest

Russia sent a note to the United States of America urging it to stop supplying arms to Ukraine, after Washington announced its intention to supply $800 million worth of arms to Ukraine.

The Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, said that sending weapons to Kyiv does not contribute to finding a diplomatic solution and a settlement of the crisis.

Antonov added that the announced number of military aid to Ukraine is huge, and pushes towards increasing risks and aggravating the situation further.

The Russian diplomat considered that the West seeks to prevent Russia from standing on its own two feet, respecting its interests and having its voice heard around the world.

Russian toll

The Russian Defense Ministry announced that the Russian Air Force bombed 56 Ukrainian military facilities last night, and that its missile forces carried out 19 strikes and destroyed 4 Ukrainian command centers and 3 ammunition depots.

Earlier, the ministry announced that its missile and artillery forces carried out more than 400 fire missions, destroying the stores of an explosives production company in the Pavlograd region of the Dnipro region of central Ukraine.

The Russian forces also announced that the second phase of the Russian military operation in Ukraine will focus on tightening control over Donbass and southern Ukraine, opening the way for the Russian army to reach its forces in the breakaway region of Transnistria.

In the same context, the regional governor of the Russian Kursk region bordering Ukraine, Roman Starovit, announced on his account on Telegram today, Monday, that the Russian air defense systems had shot down two Ukrainian drones in the region, and that there were no casualties.


British talk about a slight Russian advance

And the British Ministry of Defense reported in a regular bulletin today, Monday, that Russia has made little progress in some areas since it shifted its focus to occupying the entire Donbass region.

She explained that without the presence of elements of logistical support and combat support, Russia has not yet achieved an important breakthrough.

British military intelligence added that Ukraine's defense of Mariupol also exhausted many Russian units and reduced their combat effectiveness.

Huge fire in Bryansk, Russia

The Russian Ministry of Emergency Services said that a huge fire broke out in the early hours of Monday morning at an oil storage facility in the city of Bryansk.

There was no indication so far that the fire was related to the war in Ukraine, although Russian officials said last week that Ukrainian helicopters bombed apartment buildings, wounding seven people in the area.

The ministry said in a statement that the fire broke out at a facility owned by the pipeline company Transft at 2 am Moscow time (2300 GMT), and there was no need to evacuate any parts of the city of 400,000 people.

Bryansk is an administrative center and is located 154 km northeast of the Ukrainian border, near the Sumy and Chernihiv regions, and 380 km from the capital, Moscow.

Moscow has repeatedly accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out strikes on Russian territory, in particular on a village in the Bryansk region.

Mariupol

On the other hand, the mayor of Mariupol Province said that more than 20,000 residents of the city had died due to the Russian attack.

For his part, the deputy commander of the Azov forces of the Ukrainian army, Svyatoslav Palamar, demanded the release of the besieged people in Mariupol, accusing the Russian forces of continuing to target the besieged despite the coming of Easter, as he put it.

In turn, Ihor Zhovkva, a senior adviser to the Ukrainian president, said that Russian forces do not control the entire city of Mariupol, but rather parts of it, and that Ukrainian forces are still stationed in the city.

Zhovkva added, in a television interview, that President Volodymyr Zelensky called on several occasions to open a humanitarian corridor that would allow civilians to leave the city, but Russia did not respond to that, he said.

Negotiations and Guterres' visit

The chief adviser to the Ukrainian President criticized the upcoming visit of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, to the Russian capital, and doubted that his peace talks would yield any results.

This, and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to arrive in Ankara on Monday before heading to Moscow on Tuesday and then to Kyiv in an attempt to negotiate an end to the Russian war on Ukraine.

In this context, a member of the Ukrainian negotiating delegation, Rostim Omirov, denied that his country had retreated from its negotiating commitments, as Russia had claimed.

He explained in an interview with Al-Jazeera that if Russia continues with what he called the killings, Kyiv will leave the negotiating table, stressing that there is only one person capable of stopping the war, which is Russian President Putin, as he put it.

He stressed that his country is focusing at the current stage on providing it with weapons, especially defensive ones, explaining that Ukraine needs missile launchers and air defense systems to protect its airspace.

He added that Kyiv has informed Washington of the weapons it needs and has obtained some, and is waiting for others.