KYIV, Aug 29 – The meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Joe Biden in the While House was rescheduled to September 1 from August 31, Voice of America reported Sunday citing a source in the White House.

This is the second time the meeting has been rescheduled over the past 10 days. Now, the meeting was apparently due to the crisis in Afghanistan, according to a person familiar with the situation.

On August 19, the meeting was rescheduled to August 31 from August 30, apparently due to the need to expand the format of talks between Biden and Zelenskiy, Ukrainian officials said.

Roman Mashovets, Deputy Head of President Zelenskiy’s Office recently met with Defense Attaché Colonel Brittany Stewart and other representatives of the U.S. Embassy and discussed security issues in preparation for Zelenskiy’s visit to the United States.

Mashovets noted the readiness to work out three draft bilateral documents on defense partnership, projects in research, development, testing and evaluation and cooperation in the space sector. The American side announced its readiness to sign these documents during the visit of the President of Ukraine to the United States," the office said in a statement.

Other issues related to the content of the visit were also agreed.

In addition, ways for a possible increase in the group of American security and defense advisers were discussed. Mashovets noted the need for advisory assistance that Ukraine receives from the United States, and suggested expanding the scope of its provision.

"Also, an exchange of views on the further development of Ukrainian-American cooperation in the field of cybersecurity took place," the statement says.

In addition to Washington DC, Zelenskiy is also expected to visit the state of California.

"The president of Ukraine has been so far in the United States before, never visited another U.S. coast in the Pacific Ocean, although it is the state of California where the largest IT companies, high-tech space industry is located, and this is exactly where Ukraine has strong trump cards," Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said earlier this month. (nr/ez)