Kerry in Ukraine to offer help from United States

US Secretary of State John Kerry met Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev to pledge continuing support to the fascist-backed coup regime.

Kerry’s visit to Ukraine comes ahead of NATO’s two-day summit to start Friday in Poland.

Bitdefender worked on cybersecurity for Ukraine in 2014 after North Atlantic Treaty Organisation assigned Romania to upgrade security there.

Bogdan Botezatu, an analyst for Romanian security technology company Bitdefender, said that “cyberspace is basically now a battlefield along with air, sea and land”. “We insist on decisive implementation”.

The Kremlin said Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke on the phone to discuss eastern Ukraine. Obama urged Putin “to take steps to end the significant uptick in fighting in eastern Ukraine and stressed the urgency of moving forward with full implementation of the Minsk agreements”, according to the White House. “The same is true with respect to Crimea”, Kerry warned.

Another 10 were injured Wednesday during the fights, the Ukrainian Army’s Anti-Terrorist Operations Col. Andriy Lysenko said during a briefing in Kiev.

He said Ukrainians had upheld its side of the Minsk agreements.

Mr Kerry had just arrived from fellow former Soviet republic Georgia, which, like Ukraine, is seeking North Atlantic Treaty Organisation membership.

He praised Ukraine for making a “good faith effort” to implement Minsk and he announced an additional $23 million in humanitarian assistance to help thousands of people affected by the conflict.

US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed hope on Thursday that an end to the Ukrainian conflict was possible and praised Kiev’s pro-Western leaders for their commitment to peace.

Along with many United Nations countries, including the US and the EU, Turkey does not recognize Crimea as Russian territory.

Ukraine and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation also accuse Russian Federation of sending troops and weapons to separatist rebels, a charge Russian Federation denies.

She told lawmakers it was not enough to be able to quickly relocate troops in emergencies.

After the NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting, Poroshenko and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will give a joint press conference.