LLOYD AUSTIN

Up to 40,000 Army National Guard soldiers haven't yet gotten the mandated COVID-19 vaccine.

NATO defense ministers are discussing ways to bolster forces and deterrence along the military alliance’s eastern borders to dissuade Russia from planning further aggression.

U.S. officials are discussing whether Ukraine's President Zelenskyy should soften his stance that no territory can be ceded to Russia as part of a peace deal.

The one in Ukraine still needs our help.

Biden also announced an additional $225 million in humanitarian assistance for Ukraine to address needs like safe drinking water, critical medical supplies, food and cash for families to purchase essential items.

Ahead of two days of talks in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said members were hammering out a new assistance package to meet Ukraine’s urgent needs.

The U.S. says it will send an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, as America and its allies work to provide longer-range weapons they say can make a difference in a fight where Ukrainian forces are outnumbered and outgunned by their Russian invaders.

Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe escalated a war of words with his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin, at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

China's defense minister has accused the U.S. of "smearing" Beijing and says Washington is trying to "hijack" countries in the Indo-Pacific region.

China’s defense minister says the United States is trying to “hijack” the support of countries in the Asia-Pacific region to turn them against Beijing, saying Washington is seeking to advance its own interests “under the guise of multilateralism.”.

Unilateral change to the status quo on Taiwan “would be unwelcome and ill-advised," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the Shangri-La Dialogue.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has stressed American support for Taiwan, suggesting at Asia’s premier defense forum that recent Chinese military activity around the self-governing island threatens to change the status quo.

In a meeting between China and the U.S. on Friday, Chinese Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe warned that the country would go to war with Taiwan if the island declared independence. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave the event’s keynote speech. In a separate face-to-face meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Wei made it clear that China remained firm in its stance against Taiwanese independence.

It was the latest indication that the temperature of the U.S.-China conflict has been dialed down a few notches, even as Beijing and Washington remain strategic rivals with opposing interests across a range of issues.

China’s defense minister has complained to his American counterpart about the latest U.S. arms package for Taiwan and warned of a possible conflict over the self—governing island that China claims as its own territory.

A top State Department official says the American diplomatic push aimed at countering China’s increasing influence in the Asia-Pacific region appears to be paying dividends, with many nations showing a willingness to partner with the United States.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has called off a series of in-person meetings in Germany and Romania because he has contracted shingles.

A top State Department official has met with Philippine President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Manila, part of an ongoing diplomatic outreach in the Asia-Pacific region by Washington to try and blunt growing Chinese influence.

A COVID-19 vaccine that could soon win federal authorization may offer a boost for the U.S. military: an opportunity to get shots into some of the thousands of service members who have refused the other coronavirus vaccines for religious reasons.

President Joe Biden says there may some bipartisan support to tighten restrictions on the kind of high-powered weapons used by the gunman in the Texas school shooting.

President Joe Biden has warned fellow leaders of the informal Indo-Pacific security coalition known as the Quad that they are “navigating through a dark hour in our shared history.”.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says nearly 50 defense leaders from around the world met Monday and agreed to send more advanced weapons to Ukraine, including a harpoon launcher and missiles to protect its coast.

President Joe Biden said Monday that the United States has a “commitment” to help Taiwan militarily if China invades.

The three cadets will get degrees but "will not be commissioned into the United States Air Force as long as they remain unvaccinated," an Academy spokesperson said.

Three cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy who have refused the COVID-19 vaccine will not be commissioned as military officers but will graduate with bachelor's degrees, the academy said Saturday. Academy spokesman Dean Miller said that a fourth cadet who had refused the vaccine until about a week ago, decided to be vaccinated and will graduate and become an Air Force officer. In a statement, Miller said that while the three will get a degree "they will not be commissioned into the United States Air Force as long as they remain unvaccinated."

President Joe Biden has named Pentagon press secretary John Kirby to be the new National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday he's in “intense contacts” with Russia and other countries to stop escalating global hunger exacerbated by the war in Ukraine by allowing the export of grain stored in Ukrainian ports and ensuring Russian food and fertilizers have unrestricted access to world markets.

The U.S. military committed a number of procedural mistakes in the aftermath of a 2019 airstrike in Syria that killed dozens, including women and children, but a new investigation has concluded that U.S. troops did not violate the law of war or deliberately cause civilian casualties.

Some 260 Ukrainian fighters have left the Azovstal steel plant, but it’s unclear how many more remain.

President Joe Biden has signed an order to redeploy hundreds of U.S. troops to Somalia to counter the Islamic extremist rebel group al-Shabab.

A high-powered American delegation led by Vice President Kamala Harris is flying to the United Arab Emirates  to pay respects to the federation’s late ruler and meet with the newly ascended president

Vice President Kamala Harris has led a high-powered American delegation to the United Arab Emirates to pay respects to the federation’s late ruler and meet with the newly ascended president.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the visit a signal of bipartisan support from the U.S. Congress. The meeting took place as Ukraine said it had forced Russian troops away from Kharkiv.

A roundup of key developments and the latest in-depth coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The full rotation of about 10,500 troops from countries such as Germany, Poland and Romania will likely take a couple of months, according to the Pentagon.

Austin urged an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and emphasized maintaining open lines of communication.

After rebuffing U.S. requests for months, Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu spoke with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday.

President Joe Biden is reaffirming his administration’s support for Jordan’s long-running role as the custodian of Muslim holy sites at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

President Biden has a full day of events in Washington, focused on both foreign and domestic affairs. In the afternoon, he'll host local leaders and law endorcment officials to talk about public safety funding.

The Army is weighing new policies in response to the Supreme Court's expected decision to reverse Roe v. Wade and eliminate protections on abortion rights across the country, the service's senior enlisted leader told Congress.

U.S. Army leaders say they are poised to revamp forces in Alaska to better prepare for future cold-weather conflicts.

Final congressional approval of a $40 billion Ukraine aid bill seems certain within days.

Russia’s war in Ukraine is grinding into its third month with little sign of a decisive military victory for either side, and no resolution in sight.

The House has emphatically approved a fresh $40 billion Ukraine aid package that beefs up President Joe Biden’s initial request.

The Biden administration’s nominee for U_S_ ambassador to Ukraine is promising senators she'll work to make Russia’s war there a “strategic failure."

President Joe Biden has hosted Italian Premier Mario Draghi at the White House as the U.S. works to maintain trans-Atlantic unity over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Democrats plan to move ahead with the expanded funding package after President Biden dropped his request to link it with a separate request for COVID-19 response funds.

The United Nations chief says he is “appalled” at the reported attack on a school in the town of Bilohorivka where many people were apparently seeking shelter from ongoing fighting.

The contours of a Russian loss remain as murky as a Ukrainian win. And as the conflict heads into what is likely to be a protracted fight, the need to manage NATO unity and public opinion here and abroad — balancing the probable with the possible — has become as much a priority as what is happening on the battlefield.

Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, in a tweet said, "No one should be talking to press about such things."

Jill Biden has thanked U.S. troops deployed to Romania, where they are serving as a check against Russian aggression.

Ukraine's military is challenging Russian forces in the country's south and east, but strikes on civilian targets continue.

Top Pentagon leaders say the U.S. has learned a great deal about Russian military shortfalls and capabilities in the first two months of the war in Ukraine.

The U.S. has learned a great deal about Russian military shortfalls and capabilities in the first two months of the war in Ukraine, top Pentagon leaders told Congress Tuesday. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that if Congress approves funding, the most critical things that Ukraine needs are anti-tank, anti-aircraft and shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles. Milley added that with the fighting now concentrated in the eastern Donbas region, Ukrainian forces also need more tanks and other mechanized vehicles, which the U.S. and other nations are providing.

When President Joe Biden visits a Lockheed Martin plant on Tuesday that manufactures an antitank weapons system, he’s certain to herald the U.S.-made arms as a gamechanger in Ukraine’s stiff resistance to the Russian invasion.

Nancy Pelosi is the highest-ranking U.S. leader to visit Ukraine since Russia's invasion.

Americans are increasingly seeing China as a world superpower and a threat, though growing numbers see it more as a competitor than an enemy.

German lawmakers on Thursday voted to send “heavy weapons and complex machinery” to Ukraine just one week after claiming its arms reserves were tapped.

Under intense pressure, "Germany had to give in," and now says it will supply "exactly what Ukraine needs right now to secure its airspace from the ground."

The U.S. now believes Ukraine can win, a significant change in thinking, and is rushing in weapons. This raises the risk of widening the conflict, analysts say, and may destabilize the global economy.

Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria and threatened to do the same to other countries, using its most essential export as an attempt to punish and divide the West for its united support of Ukraine.

World leaders and the U.S. political and foreign policy elite joyously remembered America's first female secretary of state as mourners paid their respects to the late Madeleine Albright.

The United States’ top defense officials on Tuesday urged more nations to provide more weaponry, at a faster pace, to Ukraine as it prepares for the next phase of its defense against Russian aggressors.

The longer Ukraine's army fends off the Russian invasion, the more it absorbs the advantages of Western weaponry and training — exactly the transformation Vladimir Putin wanted to prevent by invading.

Western arms have already helped Ukraine stall Russia's invasion — but Ukrainian leaders have said they need more support fast.

Olena Roshchina - Tuesday, 26 April 2022, 15:48 Russian President Vladimir Putin told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Mariupol city in southern Ukraine has already been seized by the Russian army and hostilities have ended there.

Today, April 26, is the 62nd day of Ukraine's defense against a full-scale Russian invasion. Ukraine has been fighting off Russia aggression for over two months.

As Russian forces intensify their shelling of eastern Ukraine, more people are leaving their homes in search of safety.

The U.S. is pressing its allies to move “heaven and earth” to keep Kyiv well-supplied with the weapons it needs to repel Russian forces, as Moscow rains fire on eastern and southern Ukraine.

The longer Ukraine’s army fends off the invading Russians, the more it absorbs the advantages of Western weaponry and training.

“Russia is failing, Ukraine is succeeding,” Blinken said after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday. To aid in that effort, the officials announced more than $700 million in new military aid to countries threatened by Russia, including more than $300 million for Ukraine. A longer-term request is expected in the future to help Ukraine recover from what has been an utterly devastating war. Speaking in a hangar in Poland filled with crates of humanitarian aid, including diapers, destined for Ukraine, Blinken said diplomats will begin traveling to Lviv, in western Ukraine, ahead of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv reopening its doors. But officials said the benefits of reestablishing a diplomatic presence within Ukraine outweigh the risks, and will allow embassy staffers to coordinate more closely with Ukrainian officials and eventually provide more consular services.

World War Three a 'real' danger, says Kremlin Rape victim ordered to help Russian troops hunt for women Russian fuel depots set ablaze after Ukrainian strikes Many Bucha victims killed by metal darts Listen to the latest episode of our daily Ukraine podcast

Ukraine can win the war against Russia "if they have the right equipment", Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin says as he returns from a trip to Kyiv with US State Secretary Antony Blinken. "The first step in winning is believing that you can win. And so they believe that we can win," Austin told a group of journalists after he and Blinken had both met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. "We believe that we can win, they can win if they have the right equipment, the right support." ++ COMPLETES VIDI328W8PK_EN ++

President Joe Biden named Bridget Brink as his nominee for ambassador to Ukraine on Monday.

The U.S. will provide more than $300 million in foreign military financing and has approved a $165 million sale of ammunition.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, after visiting Kyiv, said Russia should not be able to "do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine."

Japan's famed cherry blossom season blankets the country in the delicate white flowers of the prized "somei-yoshino" tree. The popular somei-yoshino strain accounts for more than 90 percent of the cherry trees planted in Japan but some want change as the strain is prone to disease and tends to grow too large to be well managed in urban settings.

U.S. officials say Washington had approved a $165 million sale of ammunition for Ukraine's war effort, along with more than $300 million in foreign military financing.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is warning that Ukraine risks provoking World War III, saying the threat of a nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated.”.

Russia has unleashed a string of attacks against rail and fuel facilities deep inside Ukraine in an apparent attempt to thwart Ukrainian efforts to marshal supplies.

Journalists who traveled with the U.S. secretaries of state and defense to Poland were barred from reporting on the trip until it was over.

America's top diplomat said Russia was failing and "Ukraine is succeeding," and the Pentagon chief said success would include a "weakened" Russia.

Journalists who traveled with the U.S. secretaries of state and defense to Poland were barred from reporting on the trip until it was over.

Diplomats will return to the western city of Lviv, where Ukrainians and foreigners have sought shelter from the violence raging elsewhere in the country, a first step to reopening the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine’s capital, U.S. officials said.

After a secrecy-shrouded visit to Ukraine's capital, U_S_ Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Russia is failing in its war aims and “Ukraine is succeeding.”.

NEAR THE POLISH-UKRAINIAN BORDER (AP) — The United States announced new military assistance for Ukraine and a renewed diplomatic push in the war-ravaged nation as President Joe Biden's secretary of state and Pentagon chief completed a secrecy-shrouded trip to Kyiv. In the highest-level American visit to the capital since Russia invaded in late February, top envoy Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Ukraine’s president, Volodomyr Zelenskyy, and his advisers that the U.S. would provide more than $300 million in foreign military financing and had approved a $165 million sale of ammunition.

Johnson warns UN chief that Putin will ‘manipulate’ Russia visit Ukraine repels first week of assaults by Russian forces in Donbas Russian soldiers write 'Christ is risen' on missiles fired at Ukraine Don’t ban Russian energy, Gerhard Schroder tells Germany Listen to the latest episode of our daily Ukraine podcast

Biden faces the danger of aggressive authoritarianism and the insufficient common cause to confront it.

Russian forces called in airstrikes on a besieged steel factory in the southern city of Mariupol, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would meet in Kyiv with two top American officials.

Ukraine imposed a curfew as Russia's attacks intensified. Putin attended midnight mass.

The sun came out as Ukrainians marked Orthodox Easter in Kyiv with prayers for those fighting on the front lines and others trapped beyond them.

An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the U.S. secretaries of state and defense are meeting with the Ukrainian leader in the highest-level visit to Kyiv by an American delegation since the start of Russia’s two-month invasion.

Russian forces tried to storm a steel plant sheltering soldiers and civilians in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Saturday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met with the U.S. secretaries of state and defense in the highest-level visit to Kyiv by an American delegation since the start of the Russian invasion.

The Ukrainian military says it destroyed a Russian command post in Kherson, a southern city that fell to Russian forces early in the war.

The U.S. government is dropping its appeal of a Hawaii order requiring it to remove fuel from a massive military fuel storage facility that leaked petroleum into the Navy’s water system at Pearl Harbor last year.

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is calling on the Biden administration to establish field hospitals near Ukraine’s border and ramp up medical support for what’s expected to be a monthslong war of attrition waged by Russia.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping says his government supports talks to resolve international disputes and opposes “wanton use” of sanctions.

President Joe Biden has pledged $1.3 billion more for new weapons and economic assistance to help Ukraine in its strong but increasingly difficult battle against the Russian invasion.

President Joe Biden is planning to send additional military aid to help Ukraine fight the Russian invasion.