Unexpected visit

US secretary of state expected to announce initial package of military aid for Kyiv of up to $200m.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Kyiv for an unannounced visit that is his first for a year to the Ukrainian capital.

He is expected to announce a new package of US assistance of $175m-$200m during the two-day visit, with a larger package worth more than $1bn expected later this week, according to a senior state department official.

Blinken will meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, and the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The visit comes shortly after Zelenskiy fired his defence minister amid a number of corruption scandals over military procurement, and as Ukraine’s military counteroffensive grinds on in the south-east of the country