Ukrainian president, U.S. secretary of state discuss security situation around Ukraine

KIEV, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met here on Wednesday to discuss the security situation around Ukraine, Zelensky's press service said.

In particular, the two sides exchanged their views on the ways of settlement of the situation within the existing negotiation formats and within other modalities of the political and diplomatic settlement.

"We want to intensify the work of all negotiation formats and pave the way for the Normandy Summit," Zelensky said.

He informed Blinken that the ceasefire in Ukraine's conflict-hit region of Donbas is observed and no Ukrainian servicemen were killed this week.

The Ukrainian leader also said that his country needs U.S. assistance to modernize its army and voiced his hope that the United States would support Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic aspirations during the upcoming summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Madrid.

After talks with Zelensky, Blinken said on Twitter that he had informed the Ukrainian president on the U.S. engagements with Russia last week and stressed that "there will be nothing about Ukraine, without Ukraine."

On Jan. 10, the United States and Russia held security talks in Geneva to discuss Ukraine, among other issues.

Recently, Ukraine, the United States and some other Western countries have voiced concerns over the Russian military build-up along the Ukrainian borders, fearing that Russia is preparing for an attack.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia has no plans to attack Ukraine, and there was no reason to fear an escalation of tensions with Ukraine.

The Normandy format is a diplomatic group of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France designed to end the conflict in Donbas that has been underway since 2014.

Blinken arrived in Kiev earlier on Wednesday. Later this week, he will meet German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.