U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Ukrainian officials in their unannounced visit to Kyiv on Sunday that the U.S. will provide the country with $322 million in military aid and return diplomats to Ukraine, State Department officials told reporters. Austin told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the other officials that President Biden also approved $165 million in ammunition sales to Ukraine and that the first U.S. howitzers had arrived in Ukraine.
Blinken told Zelensky that Biden will nominate Bridget Brink, a veteran diplomat and current U.S. ambassador to Slovakia, as the new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, a position that has been vacant since Marie Yovanovitch was controversially recalled in May 2019. While Brink awaits confirmation, U.S. diplomats will "start with day trips into Lviv" and "graduate to potentially other parts of the country and ultimately, resume presence in Kyiv," a senior State Department official said.
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