U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in an unannounced visit to Kyiv, vowed Washington will take "tangible steps" to ensure Ukraine's accession to the NATO military alliance and that the United States will support the country to ensure its security and sovereignty as Russia's attacks in the east intensify.
In a televised address to students in the capital, Blinken said the United States had been by Ukraine's side since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, and that it is still "with you today, and we will stay by your side.... You are not alone."
Blinken's speech focused mainly on enhancing Ukraine's security and building economic infrastructure as a means to pave the way for Kyiv's membership in NATO.
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"When we hold the Washington summit in July, we'll take tangible steps to increase NATO's role in building a resilient, capable Ukrainian force, supporting its ongoing reforms that are integrating Ukraine into the alliance," he said.
"We are bringing Ukraine closer to and then into NATO.... We will make sure Ukraine's bridge to NATO is strong," Blinken added.
Russia has claimed it was forced to launch the invasion because the West was escalating tensions after years of provocative NATO expansion eastward and that deeper ties between the alliance and Ukraine represented a red line.
The alliance's leaders reject the accusation saying NATO does not seek confrontation and poses no threat to Russia.
Blinken told the students Russia would be made to pay for Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction and added that Congress had empowered the administration of President Joe Biden to seize Russian assets in the United States.
"It's what international law demands. It's what the Ukrainian people deserve," Blinken said, adding that Washington would work with its G7 partners on the seizure of Russian assets abroad for that purpose.
Before his speech, Blinken met with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other senior Ukrainian officials and said badly needed weaponry had already arrived in Kyiv as part of a $61 billion military aid package recently passed by Congress.
Zelenskiy told the secretary of state that his country desperately needs Patriot air defense systems, particularly in the northeastern Kharkiv region, where Russia has ramped up its offensive in recent days.
Earlier on May 14, a Russian air strike hit a residential high-rise building in Kharkiv, killing nine people.
Russia has been pressing forward into the north of the Kharkiv region, with the Defense Ministry saying it had taken the border village of Buhruvatka. The claim could not be independently verified.
Blinken also met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, and dined at a military-themed pizzeria founded by a war veteran, where he gave a ringing endorsement of the food, calling it "superb." He was due to also meet with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
On the ground in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine's General Staff said on May 14 that its forces had repelled a new attack in the direction of Vovchansk, a small town near the border with Russia that has been the focus of Moscow's offensive in recent days.
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Ukrainians Scramble To Evacuate Vovchansk As Russia Advances In Kharkiv Region
However, the military later said it was moving troops to new positions in the north of Kharkiv in response to Russian advances.
"In certain sectors in the area of Lukyantsi and Vovchansk, units have moved to more advantageous positions as a consequence of enemy fire and storming action and in order to preserve the lives of our servicemen and avoid losses," the General Staff said in a statement.
Earlier, Kyrylo Budanov, the chief of Ukraine's military intelligence, told Ukrainian television that the situation was stable in the Kharkiv area but that Russia may send in more reinforcements in the coming days.
Separately, Oleksandr Lytvynenko, the chief of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, told AFP in an interview that Russia had concentrated some 50,000 troops near the border with the region of Kharkiv, and that more than 30,000 Russian soldiers were currently taking part in the operation there.
However, Lytvynenko said the scope of Russia's move appeared limited. "We can say that we do not see the threat of an assault on the city of Kharkiv," he said.
British intelligence, meanwhile, said that, rather than attempting to take Ukraine's second-largest city, the Russian move was aimed at stretching Kyiv's depleted forces by forcing their reallocation from other battlefields.
"Russia is almost certainly attempting to divert Ukrainian resources from other parts of the front line and to threaten Kharkiv," the British defense ministry said in its daily intelligence update on May 14.
"It is unlikely that Russia has built up sufficient combat power to take the city without diverting additional forces into the area," it added.