Latest Russia-Ukraine War News: Live Updates
KRAKOW, Poland — The United States toughened its messaging on the Ukraine war on Monday, saying the American aim was not just to thwart the Russian invasion but also to weaken Russia so it could no longer carry out such military aggression anywhere.
The aim was stated in explicit terms by the highest-ranking Biden administration delegation to visit Ukraine since the war began. It reflected an emboldened intent to counter Russia by giving more numerous and powerful arms to the Ukrainians, who have battled Russian forces with unexpected tenacity, sapped Kremlin resources and flustered President Vladimir V. Putin’s hope for a quick victory.
The American delegation also announced that the United States would reopen its embassy in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv — another signal aimed at portraying Russia as headed toward defeat. The embassy, closed in the run-up to the Feb. 24 invasion, will be led by a newly appointed ambassador.
The American visit itself, led over the weekend by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, was completed early Monday and amounted to a risky dare to Russia, which has been seeking to subjugate Ukraine by force for more than two months. Russia has demanded that the United States and its NATO allies quit supplying advanced arms to Ukraine’s military.
Although the trip was supposed to be secret, word leaked, and Russia rained rockets on at least five Ukrainian rail stations hours after the visitors had finished talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv and then traveled by rail to Poland, which can take 11 hours. It is unclear whether they were in Ukraine during any part of those attacks or whether Russia had been targeting them.
Ukraine’s railways and other infrastructure are important for funneling Western-supplied weapons and aid to the combat zones in the former Soviet republic, which Mr. Putin has said he does not consider a real country.
Speaking in Poland after the trip, Mr. Austin said that Russia had suffered significant military losses so far, including “a lot of its troops.” He said the Pentagon was working to ensure that Russia could not “very quickly reproduce that capability.”
Mr. Austin and Mr. Blinken planned to hold detailed discussions on what support Ukraine needed to prevail at a meeting with allies on Tuesday in Germany.
“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree it cannot do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” Mr. Austin said.
The United States has agreed to provide not only advanced American-made weapons to Ukraine but also newly made ammunition for Soviet-designed arms, since the Ukrainian forces still use many weapons dating to that time. On Monday, the State Department said the United States was giving Ukraine $165 million in artillery shells, rockets and grenades compatible with Soviet-designed weapons.
Mr. Blinken, who said that Russia had already been thwarted in its goal of destroying the Ukrainian state,…
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