Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country would overcome 'dark times,' in an address at Kyiv's 1,000-year-old Saint Sophia Cathedral to mark Orthodox Easter as fighting in the east overshadowed the religious celebrations
The White House has not confirmed any visit, and the State Department and Pentagon declined to comment. But Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelenskiy, said late on Sunday in a social media video that Blinken and Austin had arrived in Kyiv and were holding talks with the Ukrainian president.
After Ukrainian fighters forced a Russian retreat from around Kyiv, Moscow's assault is now focused on the eastern Donbas region and the south of the country. With a semblance of normal life returning to the capital, several countries have reopened embassies in recent days and some residents who fled the fighting returned for Easter.
The United States and NATO allies have shown growing readiness to supply heavier equipment and more advanced weapons systems. Britain has promised to send military vehicles and is considering supplying British tanks to Poland to free up Warsaw's Russian-designed T-72s for Ukraine. The aim of the talks would be to establish an immediate ceasefire in Mariupol, "multi-day" humanitarian corridors, and the freeing or swapping of Ukrainian fighters trapped in the plant, Ukraine's Arestovych said.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide, called for humanitarian corridors in Mariupol and other areas of Ukraine, where he said "an indescribable human tragedy is unfolding".The governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said five people, including at least two children, were killed by Russian shelling in the area on Sunday.
Ukraine's armed forces operations command said in the past week its forces in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions had repulsed 63 Russian attacks and destroyed 55 tanks and dozens more vehicles, including 13 tanks over the last 24 hours.
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