{"id":1452651,"date":"2022-04-25T09:59:37","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T13:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1452651"},"modified":"2022-04-25T09:59:52","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T13:59:52","slug":"blinken-austin-complete-secretive-meeting-in-ukraine-promise-more-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blinken-austin-complete-secretive-meeting-in-ukraine-promise-more-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"Blinken, Austin Complete Secretive Meeting In Ukraine, Promise More Aid"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fblinken-austin-complete-secretive-meeting-in-ukraine-promise-more-aid%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1452651&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin quietly traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/04\/14\/joe-biden-deciding-now-sending-us-official-ukraine\/\">meeting<\/a>, which was intended to remain under wraps until completion, faced an early hiccup when Zelenskyy himself leaked the upcoming trip. Blinken and Austin were already half-way to Poland when Zelenskyy, at a news conference on Saturday, said the duo would soon be arriving in Ukraine, The New York Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/04\/24\/world\/europe\/blinken-austin-kyiv-ukraine.html\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the U.S. opted to continue on, making Blinken and Austin the highest-level U.S. officials to visit Ukraine since <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/03\/30\/joe-biden-says-trying-meet-trevor-reed-parents-russia-jail\/\">Russia<\/a> began its <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/03\/07\/russia-demands-dmitry-peskov-ukraine\/\">invasion<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n<p>The trip was intended to be a show of solidarity from the U.S. to Ukraine and followed visits from multiple high-level Western leaders. During the visit, Blinken promised the return of U.S. diplomats sometime within the week, a senior State Department official said, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/04\/25\/politics\/blinken-austin-kyiv-ukraine-zelensky-meeting\/index.html\">according<\/a> to CNN.<\/p>\n<p>The trip also produced tangible results for Ukraine, as Blinken and Austin told Zelenskyy and advisors that the U.S. would provide new, additional aid in its fight against Russia.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7416360\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7416360\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speak with reporters after returning from their trip to Kyiv and meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, near the Ukraine border, in Poland, April 25, 2022. Alex Brandon\/Pool via REUTERS<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The latest aid includes over $300 million in foreign military financing, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-biden-kyiv-lloyd-austin-europe-3a8441a7b10c5786fe5fd7f841332697\">according<\/a> to The Associated Press. Blinken and Austin also said a $165 million sale for ammunition was approved by the administration, according to The AP.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe [Zelenskyy] has the mindset that they want to win, and we have the mindset that we want to help them win,\u201d Austin said Monday during a press conference in Poland.<\/p>\n<p>Blinken, also speaking back in Poland on Monday, reiterated that the trip was \u201can opportunity to demonstrate directly our strong ongoing support for the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was, in our judgment, an important moment to be there, to have face-to-face conversations in detail,\u201d he added, according to The AP.<\/p>\n<p>Austin also appeared to reveal a new objective from the U.S., telling reporters that the goal is to see Russia \u201cweakened.\u201d <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/03\/26\/joe-biden-vladimir-putin-cannot-remain-in-power\/\">(RELATED:\u00a0Biden Declares Putin \u2018Cannot Remain In Power,\u2019 White House Quickly Walks It Back)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can\u2019t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,\u201d Austin declared,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/us-wants-russia-weakened-so-that-it-can-never-invade-again-1700570\">according<\/a> to Newsweek. \u201cSo it has already lost a lot of military capability. And a lot of its troops, quite frankly. And we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin quietly traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy.The meeting, which was intended to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":1480349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1452651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1452651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1480349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1452651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1452651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1452651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}