Blinken and Lammy's historic joint visit to Kyiv amidst war
Antony Blinken and David Lammy, the heads of diplomacy for the USA and the UK, have arrived in Kyiv. "This will be the first joint visit of this kind in over a decade," Lammy announced, previewing the visit.
Blinken and Lammy announced their joint visit plans to Ukraine on Tuesday at a press conference in London. "I can confirm that Tony and I will be going to Kyiv this week. This will be the first joint visit of this kind in over a decade," Lammy stated.
Blinken noted that the visit will come at a crucial moment for Ukraine, in the middle of an "intense autumn war season," with increasing bombings of Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure.
Key talks
He announced that along with Lammy, he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will discuss what Ukraine needs most and its integration with NATO and the EU.
He admitted that he expects the topic to be the possible loosening of restrictions on the use of long-range American and British weapons against targets in Russia.
"We will listen closely to our Ukrainian partners, and both of us will brief UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Joe Biden in the coming days. I expect this to be a topic when Starmer and Biden meet on Friday," Blinken said, referring to the British Prime Minister's visit to the White House on Friday.
