Blinken in Kyiv says US arms will make a difference as Ukraine reels from a new Russian offensive

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that American military aid on its way to Ukraine would make a “real difference” on the battlefield, as the top diplomat made an unannounced visit to Kyiv to reassure an ally facing a fierce new Russian offensive.

In increasingly intense attacks along the northeastern border in recent days, Moscow’s troops have captured around 100 to 125 square kilometers (40 to 50 square miles) in the Kharkiv region that includes at least seven villages, according to open-source monitoring analysts. Though most of those villages were already depopulated, thousands of civilians in the area have fled the fighting.

The Kremlin’s forces have also been making a concerted push in the east, seeking to drive deeper into the partly occupied Donetsk region. The main focus of Russian attacks Tuesday was Pokrovsk, just inside the Ukrainian border in Donetsk, where the Kremlin’s forces launched 24 assaults, the Ukrainian general staff said in a report.Analysts have called this moment one of the most dangerous for Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 — and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked Tuesday for more air defense systems to protect civilians under Russian fire in the northeast.

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