U.S. hopes for cooperation with NATO allies regarding response to Russian aggression in Kerch Strait

A senior official of the U.S. Department of State announced this during a special briefing en route to Brussels.

“As far as Ukraine is concerned. So we have some ideas in the United States. I think we’ve messaged very clearly that it’s unacceptable that Russia took this latest step, this act of aggression. We’ve coordinated very closely over the last several days with European allies both in the NATO format and in the EU format, and right now we’re focused on sizing an allied alliance-wide response, having the right size response to what happened at the Kerch. There is a humanitarian dimension to this with the sailors involved. There is an international legal dimension to this with freedom of navigation… There’s a lot of things that the United States has done and will continue to do for the Ukrainians, but we want to make sure that we come out of this week with a unified position where we’re working with allies to have a holistic response,“ he said.

The foreign ministers of NATO member countries will meet today in Brussels to discuss, in particular, Russia's “destabilizing behavior”. In addition, the negotiations on security in the Black and Azov Seas will be held at the ministerial level in the Ukraine-Georgia-NATO format.

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