--- title: "Ukraine Situation Report: Zelensky To Meet With Blinken, Austin In Kyiv" description: "In a press conference deep in a Kyiv subway station, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters that U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Defense General Lloyd Austin would meet with him on Sunday." date: "2022-04-23" modified: "2022-04-23" authors: - name: "Stetson Payne" link: "https://www.twz.com/authors/stetson-payne" url: "https://www.twz.com/ukraine-situation-report-zelensky-to-meet-with-blinken-austin-in-kyiv-on-sunday" categories: - "Americas" - "Around The Globe" - "Europe" - "NATO" - "News & Features" - "Russia" - "U.S. Homeland" - "Ukraine" tags: - "Blinken" --- # Ukraine Situation Report: Zelensky To Meet With Blinken, Austin In Kyiv ![Zelensky Blinken Austin Kyiv]() *Twitter Video Screencap* In a press conference deep in a Kyiv subway station, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters that U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Defense General Lloyd Austin would meet with him on Sunday. The three will reportedly discuss Ukraine’s “longer-term security.” The White House reportedly declined to comment on Blinken and Austin's planned visit. https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/1517921076751130624 https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1517917163998306304?s=20&t=fP23dZAxHU46BTvBxRKXYg The planned visits, two weeks after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson [met with Zelensky]() and toured the Ukrainian capital, will be the highest-ranking visits by American diplomatic and military officials to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on February 24. If the meeting goes through as described, it would also underline how dramatically the security situation in Kyiv has changed in just a matter of weeks. Before heading into the latest updates from the war in Ukraine, *The War Zone* readers can get caught up on the latest developments in our previous rolling coverage [here](). **The Latest:** Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu [announced]() the country closed its airspace to Russian military and civilian planes flying to Syria on Saturday. Turkey is the last NATO country to close the sky to Russian planes since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Observers already noted Russian jets taking the longer Caspian Sea route home on Saturday. https://twitter.com/idreesali114/status/1517915012144275460 https://twitter.com/Archer83Able/status/1517901113047101441 The British Ministry of Defense’s most recent intelligence update reported that Russian forces have not made major gains in the last 24 hours thanks to Ukrainian counterattacks. Ukrainian “air and sea defenses” are reportedly limiting Russia’s ability to make progress on the ground. https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1517730072920305665 https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1517820758273130496 Those Ukrainian air defenses went to work Saturday as Russian cruise missiles struck the port city of Odesa once again, reportedly killing at least 8 people in the city. https://twitter.com/Liveuamap/status/1517926570048036864?s=20&t=fP23dZAxHU46BTvBxRKXYg Ukraine’s Southern Operational Command reported Russian Tu-95 “Bear” strategic bombers launched the missiles from over the Caspian Sea, with air defenses shooting down two of the missiles. https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1517874144247005186 https://twitter.com/Archer83Able/status/1517824629804576768 https://twitter.com/MarQs\_\_/status/1517825388885553152 https://twitter.com/ihorosha/status/1517850045260914689 https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1517842347500912642 https://twitter.com/GirkinGirkin/status/1517853809401282561 Those air defenses are equally impacting the frontlines in eastern Ukraine. Video shows Russian Su-25SM “Frogfoot” attack aircraft flying barely above treetop height. The high-speed, low-altitude flight patterns give pilots very little time to spot and engage the target, not to mention the ever-present threat from short-range defenses and crashing into terrain. https://twitter.com/theragex/status/1517447430899388417 https://twitter.com/loogunda/status/1517852510731608065 The jets are still vulnerable to man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) at such low altitudes. Ukrainian forces have used these to deadly effect against Russian aircraft, helicopters, and more recently drones. We wrote about the Norwegians giving French-made [Mistral MANPADS]() to Ukraine earlier this week. Footage reportedly shows a Russian Ka-52 “Hokum B” being shot down by an unknown MANPADS in eastern Ukraine two days ago. https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1517780847381946368 That downed Ka-52 isn’t the first and likely won’t be the last of its kind. An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said one of these systems, the British Starstreak, has already shot down a dozen Russian helicopters. We wrote about the Starstreak system when Ukrainian forces first received them from the British Army in late March, and you can read about them [here](). https://twitter.com/AlexLuck9/status/1517884695010476035 We will update this post if necessary until we state otherwise. *Contact the author:* [*stetson.payne@thewarzone.com*]() ### Author social links