US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian President Andriy Yermak discussed plans for rapprochement of Ukraine with NATO, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA, referring to the deputy spokesman of the State Department, Vedant Patel.
The two spoke in Washington ahead of a NATO summit in the US capital next week, at which Ukraine hopes to get more assurances from the alliance on its membership application.
Blinken has already said that Ukraine will be accepted into NATO and that the summit will "help build a bridge" to this result.
"They talked about a range of topics, including the upcoming NATO summit in Washington and the Allies' intention to move Ukraine closer to NATO membership and help strengthen Ukraine's ability to defend itself against Russia aggression," Patel said at a press conference.
Blinken and Ermak also discussed efforts led by G7 countries to "improve resilience" of Ukraine's energy grid, which has come under Russian attacks in recent months, Patel also said.
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 set off Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II.