US secretary of state heads to Brussels to speed up aid to Ukraine
US secretary of state Antony Blinken is heading to Brussels for emergency talks to speed up aid to Ukraine, the US State Department announced on Tuesday.
Blinken will meet NATO and EU officials in the Belgian capital on Wednesday "to discuss supporting Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression", his spokesperson said. The trip comes in the wake of the election of Donald Trump, who is threatening to cut off US aid to Ukraine.
Trump, 78, has regularly claimed he could end the war "in a day" without detailing how he would do so. He has also questioned the more than 60 billion dollars the administration of US president Joe Biden has spent on Ukraine.
After his election, Trump spoke to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian president Vladimir Putin, whom he asked not to escalate the war, according to the Washington Post. The Kremlin denies that a conversation with Putin took place.
Negotiated settlement
Trump is also preparing to nominate Florida senator Marco Rubio as his secretary of state, according to US media. Rubio has said in recent interviews that he believes Ukraine should seek a negotiated end to its war with Russia, which he described as a "stalemate". He also voted against a military aid package for Ukraine in April.
As a result, Biden wants to speed up the delivery of military aid to Ukraine and put mechanisms in place to ensure that Europe can absorb the potential loss of US support next year.
#FlandersNewsService | © PHOTO TIERNEY CROSS / AFP
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