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Ukraine Asks Pentagon For More Help to Defend Its Airspace and Coast

Ukraine Asks Pentagon For More Help to Defend Its Airspace and Coast

Ukraine’s defense minister said he asked the Pentagon for more help defending the country’s airspace and coast as it faces rising pressure from Russian troops massing on its border. 

“We need to cover our sky and our sea,” Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told reporters at Ukraine’s embassy in Washington on Friday, after meeting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon. 

Reznikov said he was pleased that Austin vowed to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine as tensions along the border mount. At the Pentagon, Austin said that U.S. “support for Ukraine’s self-defense, sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering.”

The meeting comes with U.S. alarm over Russian troop movements prompting officials to warn European allies that Russia may be planning a repeat of its 2014 invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin denies any aggressive intentions. 

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his nation has succeeded in raising the specter of a threat over Ukraine and should keep the U.S. and its allies on edge. 

“Our recent warnings have been noticed and had an effect. A certain tension has appeared there,” Putin said in a speech to diplomats at the Foreign Ministry in Moscow on Thursday. “We need for this condition to remain as long as possible, so nobody gets it into their head to cause a conflict we don’t need on our western borders.”

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.