WASHINGTON, June 30 - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Kiev next week for meetings with Ukrainian leaders to discuss implementation of the Minsk agreement and economic reforms.

Kerry will meet President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman and other officials during his trip on July 7, John Kirby, spokesman at the Department of State, said Thursday.

The meetings with the Ukrainian leaders will come a day before Kerry accompanies President Barack Obama to the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Warsaw.

Kerry will meet with his counterparts from NATO ally and partner nations to further efforts to strengthen NATO’s security and to project stability to the alliances east and to the south, Kirby said.

Poroshenko said Tuesday he will not press for Constitutional amendments giving more powers to regions controlled by pro-Russian forces until the militants lay down their weapons and Russia withdraws its troops.

The amendments are anticipated by the Minsk agreement, which also calls for ceasefire and withdrawal of foreign troops from Ukraine.

Russia keeps about 7,000 of its troops in parts of Donetsk and Luhansk reinforcing a 25,000-strong army of the separatist enclaves that mostly consists of Russian mercenaries, according to Ukrainian military intelligence.

Russia persistently denies presence of its troops in Ukraine, and says it only supplies humanitarian aid to the enclaves.

Ukraine earlier this month began seeking to acquire advanced U.S. military equipment with defensive capabilities in order to stop potential attacks by Moscow-backed pro-Russian militants.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, said Ukraine needs high-end capabilities in order to match up with Russian forces using its disputed eastern territory as a “training ground” for its “most modern equipment.”

“In terms of defensive weapons, there are radars that we need to make sure we are protecting our soldiers from the attacks. Anti-drone weapons and artillery, anti-tank [weapons], that is something we have to deal with,” Klympush-Tsintsadze said. “We are definitely concentrating on defensive weapons, and that is something that helps us to build defense capabilities.”

The US has previously provided Humvees and unarmed Raven drones, as well as smaller items such as night vision goggles, to Ukraine, but has consistently stopped short of providing more advanced weaponry.

Ukraine has expressed interest in counter-tank weapons like the Javelin. It has one notable supporter in that quest: Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the recently appointed head of US European Command (EUCOM) and the top military official in NATO.

At an April 21 hearing, Scaparrotti told US Senators that “I think there is a requirement for an anti-tank weapon like Javelin in [Ukraine’s] situation.” (nr/ez)