U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has warned Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu against escalating tensions around Ukraine and called on him to withdraw Russian troops from the Ukrainian border to their permanent bases.

Estonia on February 18 delivered military aid to Ukraine in the form of missiles for American Javelin anti-tank missile systems.

The leaders of the criminal organizations “DPR” and “LPR” are deliberately misleading the residents of the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions about the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly planning an attack, but Ukraine will never launch an offensive in the east.

Allegations of the Ukrainian government’s alleged intention to launch an offensive in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are not true, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has said.

No order has been issued to liberate the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions by force, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov has said.