Kuleba and new US Secretary Blinken hold first call

Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba and
newly-appointed U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke by phone for the
first time on Feb. 1, Kuleba tweeted the same day.

The top diplomats reaffirmed the relationship between
the two countries and agreed on improving ties. The call comes in the shadow of
an interview on HBO with President Zelensky, in which he claims that some
events in the U.S. under the Trump administration were a ‘strong blow’ to
democracy, and that the release of transcripts of a call between the presidents
had upset him.

James Hydzik: While this
is not a ‘reset’ with the same hype that Hillary Clinton achieved with Russia
when she became Secretary of State in 2009, the call signals a shift in
relations. Moreover, it might indicate a return to the status quo for
Ukrainian-American state relations. President Zelensky’s interview on the Axios
program might be a public airing of grievances, and unnecessary for moving the
relations into more familiar waters, but Kuleba’s tweet, in which he stated
that he’s “Grateful for the unfaltering U.S. support of Ukraine’s sovereignty
& territorial integrity” will probably be received as intended.