During Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's unannounced trip to Kiev on Sunday (which had been revealed the day prior by Zelensky himself), where they met with the Ukrainian leader and hashed out details of new impending US weapons shipments, among the most significant announcements from Blinken is the planned return of American diplomats to the country.

All diplomatic staff had been pulled quickly upon the end of February Russian invasion, but European and US officials coming back to Ukraine even as fighting rages in the east is intended to underscore the Western assessment Moscow's military operation has "failed" - as Blinken stressed after his Zelensky meeting to reporters.