Kyiv: Responding to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s veiled threat of using nuclear weapons, warning of serious consequences, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during an interview said, “The consequences would be horrific”.
In the same interview he announced that United States will provide $457.5m in new civilian security aid for Ukraine. The aid is designed to help Ukrainian law enforcement and criminal justice agencies, Blinken tweeted.
“We share their commitment to a democratic, independent and sovereign Ukraine,” he added.
Meanwhile, a senior Russian legislator has called for men of fighting age to be barred from exiting the country after Putin’s partial mobilisation order sparked an apparent exodus of people seeking to evade being conscripted to fight in Ukraine.
The first Russians drafted in the country’s mobilization drive have started arriving at bases, and military analysts are raising doubts as to Moscow’s ability to equip and train all of the new troops. The number cited for the mobilization 300,000 is nearly double the size of the initial invasion force.
Annexation referendums continue in four occupied regions of Ukraine, with results in favour seen as inevitable.