Live updates l Blinken says US diplomats to visit Kyiv again

LVIV, Ukraine — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says American diplomats are making plans to return to Ukraine as soon as possible.

Blinken made the comment while speaking to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. An overnight statement Sunday said Blinken told Kuleba that America “plans to return to Kyiv as soon as possible.”

He said diplomats had been making “initial visits” to Lviv to prepare.

The U.S. evacuated its embassy in Kyiv in February just before Russia launched its war on the country. The U.S. had been bringing diplomats across the Polish border each day to work in Lviv, a city in western Ukraine some 470 kilometers (290 miles) away, before stopping the practice.

Lviv has largely been spared in the conflict, though a missile strike several days ago targeted a railroad facility near the city.

The U.S. is one of Ukraine's main backers in the war, providing billions in aid and weaponry.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

— Ukrainian forces fight Russia's grinding advance in eastern Donbas region

— Wives of Mariupol defenders appeal for soldiers’ evacuation from final holdout

— Some Ukrainians go back across front line toward homes, despite dangers

— Ukrainian women learn how to clear land mines at course in Kosovo

— Angelina Jolie makes surprise Ukraine visit, meets children

Follow all AP stories on Russia’s war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

LVIV, Ukraine — The British military says the Russian ruble will be used as currency in a Ukrainian city that Moscow seized earlier in the war.

The British military wrote that the city of Kherson will...