For the fourth time since the war began, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has once again made an unannounced trip to Ukraine where he plans to spend the night in Kyiv, despite Russia having hammered the capital with missiles in the past 24 hours. Blinken will reportedly meet with Zelensky yet again to discuss the mostly-stalled Ukrainian counteroffensive and the next rounds of U.S. funding heading Zelensky’s way. They will also discuss alternate ways for Ukraine to ship its grain out of the country while Russia continues to refuse to renew the grain deal. But more than anything else, this is just some prime-time exposure intended to reassure both Ukraine and our allies that our “as long as it takes” President isn’t backing down to rising public sentiment against continued funding for the war. Hopefully, Russia will resist the impulse to blow up some additional buildings in Kyiv while Blinken is in town. (Associated Press)

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit Wednesday, hours after Russia launched its first missile attack in a week against the Ukrainian capital.

Blinken’s trip aimed to assess Ukraine’s 3-month-old counteroffensive and signal continued U.S. support for Kyiv’s efforts to drive out the Kremlin’s forces after 19 months of war amid concerns among some Western allies over the pace of progress, according to U.S. officials.

Those Washington officials said possible alternative export routes for Ukrainian grain will also be discussed following Russia’s exit from the Black Sea Grain Initiative and its frequent bombardment of port facilities in the Odesa region from where most grain is transported abroad.

As I said, this entire trip is strictly intended as a public relations stunt. There is nothing on the agenda that couldn’t have been discussed over a Zoom call without risking the lives of not only the Secretary of State but his aides and security detail by sending them to spend the night in a war zone where there is active shelling taking place. It was only a few weeks ago when five people in Kyiv were killed during overnight Russian shelling and many more were wounded. The Russians’ missiles aren’t exactly pinpoint accurate.

As noted, Blinken is also there to reassure Zelensky that the cash spigot will remain open and American arms and munitions will continue to arrive. Sadly, that’s almost guaranteed to be true, since almost nobody in Congress seems to be concerned about the shifting attitude of U.S. voters regarding this endless stream of aid. The money keeps flowing despite mounting evidence that the Ukrainian government remains mired in corruption. And the weapons continue to be offloaded, even though some of that gear, including some of the most expensive pieces, somehow keep winding up on the black market.

So how much money are we talking about this time? Blinken is expected to announce additional aid of $175 million to $200 million. An even larger package is scheduled to be considered in Congress in the next week. No doubt that will sail merrily through as well, though a few dissenting votes may show up from the Freedom Caucus.

If one of the main topics of discussion is the Ukrainian counteroffensive, it would be good to see some honesty coming out of this meeting for a change. While Ukraine made some small advances in the southeastern part of the country in the past few weeks, even CBS News was forced to admit on Monday that pretty much the rest of the offensive has ground to a stalemate. Blinken also reportedly will be talking about American funding for rebuilding Ukraine’s infrastructure and restoring the power grid. But why would we be investing money into projects like that while Russia is still shelling the country every single day? They’ll just blow up whatever we manage to rebuild. This makes no sense and we’re long past the point where the people deserve an open debate in Congress and a roll-call vote regarding how long this is going to drag on and how much more we are expected to pay when we have many crises of our own to deal with at home.