US, Europe united on Russia policy, Kerry says

Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday said the U.S. and its European allies are united in a focus on diplomacy to ease tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

{mosads}“We are united, we are working closely together,” Kerry said at a Munich security conference.

“We all agree that this challenge will not end through military force,” he added. “We are united in our diplomacy.”

Kerry’s comments come as the Obama administration faces bipartisan pressure from both sides of the Capitol to provide weapons to Ukraine to counter Russian aggression.

Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee pushed the issue last week, while a bipartisan group of House members called for the same course of action in a letter.

“The United States must act with urgency to provide defensive lethal assistance to Ukraine,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said on Thursday.

“Russia’s invasion of sovereign territory of Ukraine, which has continued unabated in the face of political and economic sanctions, is the gravest threat to European security in decades,” McCain added.

Kerry said on Sunday that the U.S. and its allies “will stand together in support of Ukraine in the common understanding that international borders cannot be changed by force in Europe or anywhere else.”

“I have no doubt that additional assistance of economic kind and other kinds will be going to Ukraine,” Kerry said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Kerry also said at the Munich summit that the fight against violent extremists won’t be decided on the battlefield, but in areas including classrooms and workplaces.

–This report was updated at 11:46 a.m.