U.S. Says 'Will Continue' To Stand by Ukraine, As Blinken Vows Support for Winter

The top U.S. diplomat on Monday promised a high-level Ukrainian delegation sustained American support despite the new focus on the Middle East, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met the delegation led by Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, and Andriy Yermak, a top aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to discuss the latest developments on the battlefield in Ukraine and preparations for winter, including the ongoing provision of additional air defense items and hardening of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure against Russian missile and drone attacks.

Blinken also reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to Ukraine and its people, as the State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller put it.

"We, in all of our conversations with the Ukrainian government, make clear that we will continue to stand by them, that we will continue to back them," Miller told a daily briefing when responding to TURAN's questions..

"You’ve heard the President of the United States speak to the American people about exactly this question when he laid out in an Oval Office address our request to Congress to provide supplemental assistance to Ukraine, so we can continue to back Ukraine," Miller added.

Blinken also spoke to Yarmak about "steps we can take together with Ukraine to harden its infrastructure for the upcoming winter," Miller said.

The spokesperson went on to add,  "We of course in the last winter saw Russia trying to take down energy sites in Ukraine.  They may very well do that again, so we talked to them about steps that they can take to prepare for and respond to that."

Yermak in his turn took to the X, formerly known as Twitter, to Blinken for U.S. support.  Ukrainians, he wrote, were also 'touched' by the Halloween costumes of Blinken's children, who went to a White House trick-or-treating event dressed in Zelenskyy's trademark military fatigues and the Ukrainian flag's yellow and blue.