HAPPENING NOW! Blinken wraps up G7 meetings, says G7 partners 'determined' that Ukraine has the money, munitions and mobilized forces to fight effectively in 2025 or to negotiate, but from a position of strength. Blinken re: G7 talks on Ukraine: "We're also finalizing getting out the door the $50 billion that have been secured on the basis of the Russian sovereign assets that are frozen."

NEW!!! U.S. 'concerned' by the reports of DPRK soldiers fighting on behalf of Russia, State Dept Spox tells me

"If that's true, it would mark a significant increase in the relationship between those two countries..." DoS Spox Miller on reports about DPRK soldiers fighting on behalf of Russia:

"It would also indicate a new level of desperation by Russia as it continues to suffer significant casualties on the battlefield"

NEW!! U.S. intel officials tell reporters that Moscow is "leveraging a wide range of influence actors in an effort to influence congressional races, particularly to encourage the U.S. public to oppose pro-Ukraine policies and politicians"

1/4 ODNI official: "Russian influence actors have planned, and likely created and disseminated, content, particularly over social media, intended to encourage the election of congressional candidates that Moscow assesses will oppose aid to Ukraine."

HAPPENING NOW!!!

"The bottom line is this. We want Ukraine to win!!" Blinken says in Kyiv

"We remain fully committed to Ukraine's victory — to not only ensuring that Ukraine can defend itself today, but can stand on its own feet strongly, militarily, economically, democratically for many, many days ahead to securing the path the Ukrainian people have chosen toward greater integration in the Euro-Atlantic community, including the EU and NATO, to getting a just and lasting peace Blinken: "Our support will not wane. Our unity will not break. Putin will not outlast the coalition of countries committed to Ukraine's success, and he is certainly not going to outlast the Ukrainian people."

"They've never wavered in their belief that they and they alone will decide their future. Now we have challenging moments. This is a challenging moment as well, with an expansion of attacks from Russia, humbling Ukrainian cities, citizens infrastructure with monstrous brutality, and now Putin's further empowering his aggression with the acquisition of Iranian ballistic missiles. So we're working with urgency to continue to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to effectively defend itself"

JUST NOW!!! White House says "all of our programs for Georgia are under review"

1/2 NSC's Mike Carpenter: "Frankly, when we see harassment of civil society when we see laws being passed, that limit the space for fundamental freedoms in Georgia that's not compatible with the values that undergird the NATO alliance, nor, frankly, do we think it's compatible with your Atlantic integration writ large, including the EU"

HAPPENING NOW!!! Biden just wrapped up Oval Office meeting with @NATO chief Stoltenberg

@jensstoltenberg told me he expects that NATO leaders will agree next month to have a NATO role in providing security assistance and training as well as financial support to Ukraine

1/2 WATCH!!! @NATO Chief @jensstoltenberg details a “robust package” for Ukraine, to be formally announced next month in Washington 👇🏻

#StandWithUkraine

NEW! U.S. has a message to Georgian Dream:

"If you want to be in our community, including to benefit from things like where your kids go to school, then you have to start acting like a member of that community."

Amb O'Brien's briefing just ended. Here are some quotes

1/7 "It's clear what the Georgian people want... It's also clear what the policy of the Georgian government is," @StateEUR tells me.

"It's unfortunate that a set of specific actions recently, particularly violence and threats to civil society and occasionally opposition politicians, a law that's intended to stigmatize the very groups that help Georgia prepare for its European and transatlantic aspirations, that these specific actions have led us to question whether the current leadership is interested in moving forward."

"So our focus is on the specific actions that they are taking and the hope that they will realize that their own people want to be sure that they continue on the path toward Europe and NATO"

2/7

Yesterday's blackouts in #Moldova are "yet another example of how Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine is destabilizing the region and adding to international crises," a State Department spokesperson told me.

#RussiaIsATerroristState
#StandWithUkraine
#StandWithMoldova "Russia aims to fracture the energy grid and leave millions in the region without power, water, or heat, in an attempt to reduce Ukraine’s resilience and determination during the cold winter months"

— a State Department spokesperson

#RussiaIsATerroristState
#StandWithUkraine

JUST IN:

Readout of President Biden’s Call with President Andrzej Duda

#RussianAggression POTUS also spoke by phone with @NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, per WH.
 
 #RussianAggression

'@ZelenskyyUa to G20:

"To liberate Ukrainian land, we will have to fight for a while longer"

"Ukraine should not be offered to conclude compromises with its conscience, sovereignty, territory, and independence."

#StandWithUkraine '@ZelenskyyUa to G20

"Ukraine's control over all sections of our state border with Russia must be restored."

"Russia must re-affirm the territorial integrity of Ukraine"

#RussiaIsATerroristState
#StandWithUkraine

THIS!

UN General Assembly votes to hold Russia accountable for reparations in Ukraine

#RussiaIsATerroristState
#StandWithUkraine Russia “must bear the legal consequences of all of its internationally wrongful acts, including making reparation for the injury, including any damage, caused by such acts”, the resolution reads.

#RussiaIsATerroristState
#StandWithUkraine

NEW:

U.S. Sanction Russia’s Global Military Procurement Network and Kremlin-Linked Networks

#RussiaIsATerroristState
#StandWithUkraine️ Today's sanctions target 14 individuals and 28 entities, including family members of Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, as well as people that it says worked as financial facilitators in Suleiman’s network.

#RussiaIsATerroristState
#StandWithUkraine️

U.K. says it discovered ‘sick’ Russian troll factory

“We cannot allow the Kremlin and its shady troll farms to invade our online spaces with their lies about Putin’s illegal war,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.

#StandWithUkraine “The UK Government has alerted international partners and will continue to work closely with allies and media platforms to undermine Russian information operations.”

#StandWithUkraine️

Norway to close its borders and ports to Russian trucks and ships, joining sanctions imposed by the EU over the war in Ukraine...

#StandWithUkraine Norway's Arctic Svalbard archipelago, which operates under a 1920s treaty allowing expanded foreign access, will also be exempted, the country's foreign ministry said.

#StandWithUkraine

'@ZelenskyyUa announces capture of Putin ally oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk in Ukraine

#StandWithUkraine Medvedchuk is widely seen as the Kremlin’s point person in Ukraine.

He has a long-standing personal relationship with Putin.

#StandWithUkraine

Blinken says, U.S. has 'credible reports' that Russian forces may use variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents that would cause stronger symptoms, to incapacitate Ukrainian fighters & civilians, as part of aggressive campaign to take Mariupol. "... We shared that information with #Ukraine, as well as with other partners" Blinken says.

U.S. is 'not in a position' to confirm the latest reports of the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.

#StandWithUkraine

Putin's #Russia has lost touch with reality, acting as aggressors, blaming #Ukraine for actions committed by Russian troops, @ZelenskyyUa says.

“They have destroyed the lives of millions... They started a full-scale war and act as if we are to blame for this”

#StandWithUkraine "They seized Crimea - and we are allegedly to blame.

They destroyed normal life in Donbas - and we are allegedly to blame.

They shot down a Malaysian Boeing - and we are allegedly to blame"

@ZelenskyyUa on Russian denials...

#StandWithUkraine

'@Amnesty has confirmed that a 220mm Uragan rocket dropped cluster munitions on the Sonechko nursery and kindergarten in the town of Okhtyrka in Sumy Oblast, on Feb 25, where local people were seeking safety from the fighting.

"The strike may constitute a war crime." - Amnesty “There is no possible justification for dropping cluster munitions in populated areas, let alone near a school,” @AgnesCallamard

“This attack bears all the hallmarks of Russia’s use of this inherently indiscriminate and internationally-banned weapon..."

Update: "As of this morning, we have no indication that the Russian military has taken control over any cities, and we still believe that Russia has yet to achieve air superiority," a senior U.S. defense official says. The Russian invasion of Ukraine over the last 24 hours has been observed to occur over three main axes: from the south — including an amphibious assault from the Sea of Azov; from the north central; and from the northeast, a senior defense official said.

Ukrainian service members are fighting bravely — and effectively — for their country against the massive Russian onslaught, a senior defense official said at the Pentagon today.

#StandWithUkriane The official, speaking on background, said Russian forces attacking toward the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv are going slower than they anticipated.

"They are meeting more resistance than they expected," the official said.