US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is leading a surprise visit by a Congressional delegation to war-torn Ukraine, vowed that Washington would continue to support President Volodymyr Zelensky and his troops until the end of the war with Russia.

“We believe that we are visiting you to say thank you for your fight for freedom. We are on a frontier of freedom and your fight is a fight for everyone. Our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done,” Pelosi said in a tweet with a photo of herself and Zelensky, after their meeting in Kyiv.

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The 44-year-old Ukrainian president also posted on social media, hailing the cooperation between the two countries.

“The United States is a leader in Ukraine’s strong support in the fight against Russian aggression. Thank you for helping to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state!,” reads a translated version of Zelensky’s tweet, which was made in Ukrainian.

Pelosi’s assurances of support for Ukraine come at a time when Russia has intensified military operations in the east of the war-torn country in a bid to prioritise the ‘liberation’ of the contested Donbas region.

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In light of the changing nature of the conflict, which has now moved from urban areas to more open battlefields in rural areas, the US has started providing Ukraine with the required military equipment – such as tanks, helicopters, howitzers, and drones – to hold off any Russian advance.

US President Joe Biden has also requested $33 billion in supplementary aid for Ukraine from Congress as he looks to ramp up support for Ukraine without risking a direct confrontation with Russia, which has repeatedly warned of nuclear escalation in the event of any direct Western intervention in the ongoing war.