Politico: Trump sends two senior US military officials to Kyiv

U.S. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff General Randy George have arrived in Kyiv for an unannounced visit. This was reported by the newspaper Politico, citing two unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter.

Driscoll and George became the highest-ranking Defense Department officials from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to visit Ukraine.

They are scheduled to meet with Ukraine's military leadership, lawmakers and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The meetings will begin on Wednesday, November 19.

The trip will focus on engaging the Ukrainian leadership in restarting the peace process with Russia, even though Moscow has rejected all previous attempts by the United States and Ukraine to stop the fighting.

Kyiv and Washington are also working on a major agreement to share technology in the field of UAVs and autonomous munitions, and this trip is partly intended to support those efforts.

Ukraine has become a leader in the development and improvement of long- and short-range attack drones that have changed the look of the battlefield and hit targets deep in Russia, the media reports.

Journalists noted that, at first glance, sending Driscoll to Kyiv on a delicate peacekeeping mission seems like an unusual decision. But the army veteran and friend of the US Vice President J.D. Vance from Yale Law School has become an important figure in the Pentagon and may now take a more prominent role.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did not visit Kyiv. Spokesmen for Driscoll and George declined to comment.

• On October 16, Trump had a phone conversation with Putin. They agreed that would meet within two weeks in Budapest.
• However, on October 23, Trump announced the cancellation of the summit. He says he will not meet with the Russian dictator until there is a real prospect of signing a peace deal.