Secretary Blinken travels to Europe to discuss support for Ukraine

Anthony Blinken, the chief diplomat of the outgoing administration of incumbent US President Joe Biden, traveled to Brussels on Tuesday, November 12, for talks with European allies concerned that President-elect Donald Trump may abandon Ukraine in the war with Russia.

In his first foreign trip since Trump's election victory on November 5, Secretary Blinken will stop in Brussels before scheduled visits to Peru and Brazil this week, Reuters reported.

During his meetings with NATO and European Union officials, Blinken "will discuss support for Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression," the State Department said, without specifying what message he will deliver.

It is noted that since the beginning of the full-scale war, in addition to providing billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, President Joe Biden has worked to expand NATO and rallied countries around the world to isolate Russia after Moscow's invasion in 2022. But Trump has been critical of Biden's aid to Ukraine, raising concerns about future support for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's government under a Republican-controlled White House, Senate and possibly House of Representatives. Donald Trump's"peace plan" for ending the war in Ukraine may include a demand to abandon NATO membership for 20 years and a freeze on the front line without returning territory. This all comes as the Ukrainian Armed Forces have come under increasing pressure from Russia in recent weeks along a 1,000-kilometer-long front line that stretches across Ukraine's already overwhelmingly large military force.

Biden officials have said that they will push to deploy aid to Ukraine already allocated before Trump takes office on January 20, in hopes of helping Kyiv's forces push back Russian troops that have been gaining territory.