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Your Thursday Briefing: Blinken Visits Ukraine

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Officials pushed back on Moscow’s negotiation demands.
We’re covering U.S. efforts to shore up Ukraine and Britain’s lifting of Covid restrictions. Before a meeting tomorrow with Russia’s foreign minister in Geneva, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Russia could attack Ukraine “on very short notice” and warned of “confrontation and consequences for Russia” if it does. Blinken made the remarks in Kyiv, Ukraine, where he landed Wednesday morning to meet with Ukraine’s president in a show of support. Russia has positioned around 100,000 troops along its western border with Ukraine, although estimates vary. “We know that there are plans in place to increase that force even more on very short notice,” Blinken said, “and that gives President Putin the capacity, also on very short notice, to take further aggressive action against Ukraine.” No to Russian demands: Blinken said he would not provide Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with a written response to Russia’s demands on Eastern European security. The meeting in Geneva may be one of the last chances for a diplomatic path to averting what U.S. officials fear is an imminent Russian attack on Ukraine. Aid for Ukraine: It was not clear if Blinken offered concrete measures to help Ukraine, but the Biden administration has approved an additional $200 million in defensive security aid for Ukraine. That money comes in addition to $450 million in such aid that the U.S. provided Ukraine in the last fiscal year. Latest Russian response: “We will not attack, strike, invade, quote unquote, whatever, Ukraine,” Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said Wednesday. Related: A court in Ukraine ruled that former President Petro Poroshenko could await trial while released, declining a request from the government to arrest him. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that almost all remaining Covid restrictions in England would end starting next week as he battles to stanch a devastating loss of support over accusations that he lied about parties at Downing Street during lockdowns. Johnson’s announcement on Wednesday appeared to be an effort to win over the nearly 100 Conservative lawmakers who rebelled against him when he imposed the measures last month.

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