Russia says Blinken's Kyiv visit sign of U.S. alarm over frontline situation

Russia says Blinken's Kyiv visit sign of U.S. alarm over frontline situation

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Kyiv looked like a sign of Washington's growing alarm over the frontline situation and what it called Ukrainian military failures.

Blinken, the first senior U.S. official to travel to Ukraine after the U.S. Congress last month passed a delayed $61 billion military aid package, said the U.S. would stand by Ukraine until its security sovereignty was guaranteed.

Russian forces have pushed into Ukraine's Kharkiv region in recent days forcing Ukrainian troops to fall back from a slew of settlements and are currently taking up positions in the streets of the town of Vovchansk, according to a local official.

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Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing in Moscow that U.S. military help to Kyiv would not help the country's political leadership survive.

"The U.S. Secretary of State is visiting Ukraine from 14-15 May. It is obvious that the situation on the front and the military failures of the Ukrainian armed forces are causing increasing alarm in the Biden administration," said Zakharova.

"No amount of armaments will save (Ukrainian President) Zelenskiy's criminal regime from collapse. All military equipment supplied to Ukraine will be destroyed," she said.