KYIV, Ukraine, May 15, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - The United States will back Ukraine

until its security is "guaranteed", US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
vowed on a trip to Kyiv on Tuesday, after Russian forces claimed further
advances in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Blinken's visit came just weeks after the US Congress finally approved a $61-
billion financial aid package for Ukraine following months of political
wrangling, unlocking much-needed arms for the country's outgunned troops.

"We're with you today. And we will stay by your side, until Ukraine's
security, sovereignty, and ability to choose its own path is guaranteed,"
Blinken said in a speech.

"The assistance is now on its way. Some of it has already arrived. More will
be arriving," he had told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a
meeting earlier.

"That's going to make a real difference against the ongoing Russian
aggression on the battlefield," he said.

Zelensky thanked Washington for the aid, which he said was "crucial" -- but
stressed it was "important to get it as quickly as possible".

"We need a noticeable acceleration of supplies. Now too much time passes
between the announcement of packages and the actual appearance of weapons on
the frontline," he said in an evening address.

Zelensky said air defence was the "biggest problem" for Ukraine and requested
two Patriot batteries for the Kharkiv region, where Russian forces have been
advancing and pounding villages along the border since Friday.

Blinken was on his fourth visit to Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine in
February 2022.

After meeting Zelensky, he met Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in
Veterano, a pizzeria set up by a military veteran in the city centre.

Driving his point home at a visit to an underground Kyiv bar, the Barman
Dictat, later on Tuesday, Blinken picked up a guitar and sang the Neil Young
classic "Rockin' in the Free World", accompanied by Ukrainian musicians.

- 'Minimal human losses' -

Russia's surprise ground offensive in the Kharkiv region has forced thousands
to evacuate and pushed Kyiv to mobilise troop reinforcements.

Ukraine said several civilians have been killed by Russian fire in the
region, including on Tuesday two people aged 80 and 83.

Officials in the region's main municipality, also called Kharkiv -- Ukraine's
second-biggest city -- said Russian strikes hit the centre, injuring 20
people.

One civilian, a 47-year-old man, was also reported killed in the city of
Nikopol in southern Ukraine.

Russia's defence ministry meanwhile said its forces had captured another
village in the Kharkiv region.

"Units of the North group of troops liberated the village of Bugruvatka in
the Kharkiv region and advanced deep into the enemy defences," the ministry
said.

The advance is the latest in a string of tactical successes for Russia on the
battlefield this year after initial setbacks in a conflict that Moscow hoped
would be wrapped up in days.

Russia's incoming defence minister, economist Andrei Belousov, said the
priority was to secure victory on the battlefield while minimising human
losses.

"The key task, of course, remains achieving victory and ensuring the
military-political goals of the special military operation, set by the
president, are achieved," Belousov told a session of the Russian parliament
on Tuesday.

"In this respect, I want to especially emphasise 'with minimal human
losses'."

- 'Firing on everything' -

The Ukrainian army has acknowledged Russian successes in Kharkiv but Zelensky
has stressed that reinforcements have been sent there and Ukrainian
"counterattacks are ongoing".

At a checkpoint outside the city of Kharkiv, a Ukrainian official said
Russian forces had entered Ukraine through "villages on the very border that
were complicated for us to defend".

Russian forces "are on high ground and are shelling us from there", added
Volodymyr Usov, head of the Kharkiv district military administration.

The head of Ukraine's security council, Oleksandr Lytvynenko, said Moscow had
massively upped its troop deployment for the new offensive in the Kharkiv
region.

In an interview this week with AFP, he said Russia had sent more than 30,000
troops over the border, but insisted there was no threat of an assault on
Kharkiv city.

Usov, the Kharkiv district head, estimated there were still around 300
residents left in Lyptsi, a border village under Russian bombardment.

"They are shelling the villages, firing on everything they can," Sergiy
Kryvetchenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian military administration in Lyptsi,
told AFP.

State power operator Ukrenergo said it was forced to introduce emergency
blackouts in all regions of the country on Tuesday after weeks of Russian
strikes on power plants left the country unable to meet demand during a cold
snap.