US secretary of state pledges support for Ukraine ‘in face of Russian aggression’

A week after four soldiers were killed in eastern Ukraine, the US has pledged its support to the country in what it called the “face of ongoing Russian aggression”.

The US secretary of state Anthony Blinken, in a phone call to Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, on Wednesday offered his condolences for the soldiers’ deaths and expressed support to the minister for Ukraine’s territorial integrity, a statement from the US Department of State said.

Blinken’s comments come after Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Ruslan Khomchak, had claimed Russia was trying to build up armed forces near Ukraine’s border “in a threat to the country’s security.” It comes after a ceasefire agreement between Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists was violated repeatedly.

According to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), there have been hundreds of ceasefire violations in the past few days including, it said, 493 in a single day on 26 March.