U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit on Monday, October 21, as reported by CNN.
In Kyiv, Austin is set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov to discuss Ukraine's military needs and how the U.S. can continue supporting the Ukrainian army in the coming year.
The day before, Austin expressed confidence that the U.S. and its allies will continue to support Ukraine next year, regardless of who is in power in the U.S.
"I do think allies and partners will continue to rise to the occasion. And we’ve invested in things that will soon come to fruition, in terms of additional systems like NASAMS (surface-to-air missiles). We made those investments a year and a half, two years ago, and we’ll start to see some of that come to life here soon," he said on Sunday evening en route to Kyiv.
