Fresh eastern Ukraine shelling stokes Russian invasion fears

Ukraine accused Russian-backed separatists in the country's east of more cease-fire violations on Friday, as the United States and its allies warned Moscow might use a spike in shelling there as a pretext for an invasion. With the escalation in eastern Ukraine stoking fresh global alarm, the State Department said late Thursday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Europe next week — provided Russia does not attack its neighbor beforehand. In an address to the United Nations Thursday, Blinken laid out Washington’s detailed fears about what Russian President Vladimir Putin might be planning. He echoed President Joe Biden's dire assessment of the Russian threat, with hopes for a diplomatic solution to the crisis fading.

Biden will host a call Friday with "transatlantic leaders" to discuss “Russia’s buildup of military troops on the border of Ukraine and our continued efforts to pursue deterrence and diplomacy,” a White House official said. As tensions rose once again between Russia and the West, Moscow announced large-scale drills involving its nuclear forces starting Saturday. The Russian military announced that Putin will oversee the sweeping exercise, which will involve multiple practice missile launches and offer a timely reminder of the country’s nuclear might. Ukrainian government troops have been fighting the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014 — when Moscow annexed Crimea and threw its weight behind the breakaway forces — in a simmering conflict that's claimed some 14,000 lives. It has been closely watched over fears it could become a source of potential escalation in the broader crisis. And this week, with Russia massing as many as 150,000 troops around Ukraine's borders and the West saying they have seen no sign of a claimed pullback, there has been an uptick in the violence.