Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit his war-torn country on Sunday.
While taking questions during a press conference in Kyiv Saturday, Zelenskyy said that both officials will be arriving on April 24.
“Tomorrow we will communicate exactly in terms of the list of weapons we need and the pace of its supply,” Zelenskyy said.
The White House, the National Security Council and the State Department have declined to comment on his remarks about the meeting. The Pentagon will not speak to the claim from the Ukrainian president, according to two defense officials.
Their trip would mark the highest-level U.S. officials to visit to the country since Russia invaded in late February.
Two Republican lawmakers traveled to Kyiv earlier this month, becoming the first U.S. officials known to have visited Ukraine during the war. Sen. Steve Daines of Montana and Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana visited suburbs in the capital and mass graves in nearby Bucha.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly requested for President Joe Biden to visit the country, but White House officials have said such a trip is highly unlikely to occur in the near future.
Russia's attempts to fully gain control of Mariupol have been slowed by Ukraine's resistance, which has prevented them from making major gains in the past 24 hours, according to an intelligence briefing from the United Kingdom's defense ministry Saturday.
