Insight Bureau: Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia’s top diplomat warned Ukraine against provoking World War III. and said the threat of a nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated”. Russia unleashed attacks against rail and fuel installations far from the front lines of Moscow’s new eastern offensive.

The US, meanwhile, moved Monday to rush more weaponry to Ukraine and said the assistance from Western allies is making a difference in the 2-month-old war. “Russia is failing. Ukraine is succeeding,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared, a day after he and the US secretary of defense made a bold visit to Kyiv to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Blinken said Washington approved a USD 165 million sale of ammunition, non-US ammo, mainly if not entirely for Ukraine’s Soviet-era weapons, and will also provide more than USD 300 million in financing to buy more supplies.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin took his comments further, saying that while the US wants to see Ukraine remain a sovereign, democratic country, it also wants “to see Russia weakened to the point where it can’t do things like invade Ukraine.” Austin’s remarks appeared to represent a shift in broader US strategic goals.