Pentagon chief lands in Brussels for Ukraine talks

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Brussels Tuesday, where he will preside at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group to weigh next steps in aiding Ukraine stand up against Russia's invasion.

The Pentagon says as many as 50 nations may attend the contact group meeting, with a focus on Ukraine's war fighting effort in the Donbas region.

Russian forces in the past few weeks have pressed hard to capture Ukraine's eastern industrial Donbas area, which borders Russia and is made up of the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Russian troops control about 80% of the fiercely contested eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk and have destroyed all three bridges leading out of it but Ukrainian authorities are still trying to evacuate the wounded, a regional official said Tuesday.

If Russia prevails in the battle of Donbas, it will mean that Ukraine loses not only land but perhaps the bulk of its most capable military forces, opening the way for Moscow to grab more territory and dictate its terms to Kyiv.

A Russian failure, however, could lay the grounds for a Ukrainian counteroffensive - and possibly lead to political upheaval for the Kremlin.

Image: AP