What happened last night?
- US Secretary of State Blinken canceled a scheduled meeting with his Russian counterpart Lavrov. According to Blinken, this no longer makes sense after Russia’s actions in eastern Ukraine.
- A series of countries have announced sanctions against Russia: such as the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan and Australia, have also decided to take punitive measures. This mainly relates to financial penalties.
- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba described the sanctions announced by the United States as a “strong first step”. He said the United States had promised to provide more weapons.
- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an immediate halt to the escalation in eastern Ukraine. “If troops from one country enter another country’s territory without their permission, they are not neutral peacekeepers. They are not peacekeepers at all,” Guterres said in New York.
- Satellite images released by US-based company Maxar Technologies show more than 100 military vehicles and dozens of never-before-seen soldiers’ tents in southern Belarus, near the border with Ukraine.
What is on the agenda today?
- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was supposed to meet with Prime Minister Rutte in The Hague today, but that was cancelled.
- The United Nations General Assembly in New York discusses the situation in eastern Ukraine. And Ukrainian Minister Kuleba will deliver a speech there.
If you want to know what caused the instability in eastern Ukraine for a long time, watch this video:
