Blinken to Meet With Senior Russian as Ukraine Tensions Soar

WASHINGTON—Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with his Russian counterpart in Switzerland this week as tensions between the United States and Russia escalate over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, the State Department said Tuesday. The State Department said Blinken will travel to Kyiv on Wednesday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, move on to Berlin and then meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Friday. The hastily arranged trip aims to show U.S. support for Ukraine and impress on Russia the need for de-escalation. White House press secretary Jen Psaki underscored the urgency. “We’re now at a stage where Russia could at any point launch an attack in Ukraine. And what Secretary Blinken is going to go do is highlight very clearly there is a diplomatic path forward,” she said. Psaki said Russian President Vladimir Putin created the crisis by massing 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders …