OREANDA-NEWS American diplomats will begin to gradually return to Ukraine from next week. This was announced by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken following a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky in Kiev, CNN reports. After the visit to the Ukrainian capital, they, along with Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin, spoke at a press conference in Poland.

The United States will consider opening the embassy itself in Kiev soon, Blinken said: «I think it will happen within a couple of weeks». The Secretary of State stressed that Washington is acting «cautiously» in this matter, giving priority to the safety of diplomatic staff.

Even before the start of the Russian military operation, the United States decided to temporarily move the embassy in Ukraine from Kiev to Lviv, and subsequently the authorities ordered the staff to move to Poland for security reasons. On April 8, Zelensky invited foreign diplomats to return to the Ukrainian capital, calling it a signal that Kiev is not a «provincial Russian city».

Blinken confirmed that later on April 25, President Joe Biden will nominate U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia Bridget Brink to head the diplomatic mission in Ukraine. This position has remained vacant since 2019.

According to Blinken, his and Lloyd's meeting with Zelensky lasted three hours. «This was the main purpose of our visit. We wanted to focus on the work that needed to be done to watch <...> how are we moving forward in all these different directions», the Secretary of State said.

At the meeting, as reported by Reuters, the heads of the State Department and the Pentagon announced that the United States will allocate $713 million for military financing of Ukraine and 15 other European countries. Later at a press conference, Lloyd promised that the United States would «do everything possible» to provide Kiev with types of weapons that «will be effective at this stage» of hostilities.