By Simon Lewis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. top diplomat to Ukraine Kristina Kvien and her team arrived in Kyiv on Sunday, a senior State Department official said, after Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised on a visit last month to reopen the U.S. embassy in the Ukrainian capital soon.
The move is the latest step toward the resumption of a full U.S. presence in Kyiv after diplomats began returning to the western city of Lviv last month, having left the country ahead of Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion out of security concerns.
Videos posted on social media on Sunday showed a motorcade rolling into the embassy compound.
The team’s visit was timed to commemorate Victory in Europe Day on Sunday, the official said. Russia celebrates the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany on its Victory Day on Monday.
The team, led by Charge d’Affaires Kvien, is the first delegation from the Biden administration to visit Ukraine’s capital since the invasion, aside from Blinken’s visit alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Blinken and Austin did not visit the embassy.
Blinken has instructed officials to work toward getting diplomats back in Kyiv as soon as possible “consistent with the safety and security imperatives,” and spoke to Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Sunday to inform him of the visit, the official said.
“The secretary relayed to his senior team and to Foreign Minister Kuleba that our return to Kyiv is a testament to Ukraine’s success, Moscow’s failure, and our effective and enduring partnership with the government and people of a sovereign, democratic, and free Ukraine,” the official said.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Lisa Shumaker)
