OREANDA-NEWS. Ukraine has offered the United States to deploy US air defense units on its territory, said Oleksiy Reznikov, Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration of the Uncontrolled Territories of Ukraine.

Reznikov is on a visit to the United States, where he held a number of meetings, including with the head of the American Jamestown Foundation, Glen Howard.

"It is important to expand the security package for Ukraine. First of all, by deploying air defense forces, even by deploying American units. Our legislation allows this," said Reznikov, quoted by the press service of the Ukrainian government.

According to Reznikov, Ukraine is concerned that "Russia has already de facto occupied the Sea of ​​Azov and totally changed the balance in the Black Sea, completely militarized it. We are especially concerned about Russia's actions aimed at preparing Crimea for the deployment of nuclear weapons there."

Reznikov also called on to strengthen sanctions against companies involved in the Nord Stream 2 project and to prevent the gas pipeline from starting up.

Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, at a meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, expressed the opinion that the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the United States on August 30 would raise relations between the countries to a new level.