US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken promised a senior Ukrainian official on Monday that the United States would continue to support Kyiv even in winter, when new Russian strikes on critical infrastructure are expected, AFP reported.

Anthony Blinken met with Andriy Yermak, Chief of Staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, during the Secretary of State’s short stop in Washington after returning from a new tour in the East.

Even as the world’s attention is now focused on the war between Israel and Hamas, President Joe Biden has pledged to maintain tens of billions of dollars in US aid to Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion, despite opposition to the aid from parts of the Republican Party.

“In all our conversations with the Ukrainian government, we have emphasized that we will continue to support them,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

Anthony Blinken discussed with Andrii Yarmak “steps we can take together with Ukraine to strengthen their infrastructure ahead of the coming winter,” Matthew Miller said.

“Of course, last winter we saw that Russia tried to destroy power plants in Ukraine. It is very possible that he will try again,” he added.

Washington is the largest provider of military aid to Kyiv, providing tens of billions of dollars since the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Aware of the risk of fatigue among parts of the American political class, Democratic President Joe Biden decided to combine his new aid request for Ukraine – more than $61 billion – with a request for Israel, about $14 billion.