Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin says U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has assured him that Washington will continue to support Kyiv in its standoff with Russia.

Klimkin spoke to reporters after meeting at the U.S. State Department Tuesday with Tillerson, reported the Voice of America.

“[Tillerson] assured me that the United States would consistently continue to support Ukraine in its struggle against Russian aggression, that Ukraine is a key partner of the U.S. in the region, that the U.S. would also consistently support Ukraine on its path of reforms,” Klimkin said, adding that their talks included “a wide range of questions” about U.S.-Ukrainian cooperation.

Several hours after his meeting with Tillerson, Klimkin told a U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee hearing that the secretary of state gave him a strong signal that Ukraine would not become a bargaining chip in any push for rapprochement between Moscow and Washington.

It was a “very strong message of support for Ukraine, and that any kind of tradeoffs are not possible,” the Ukrainian visitor told senators, adding that his president, Petro Poroshenko, has received similar assurances in conversations with U.S. President Donald Trump.