In Kyiv, Mattis says Moscow wants to redraw borders by force

By Robert Burns, The Associated Press

Posted August 24, 2017 6:24 am.

Last Updated August 24, 2017 7:00 am.

This article is more than 5 years old.

KIEV, Ukraine – U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis is accusing Russia of trying to redraw international borders by force.

He is telling Ukrainian leaders Washington won’t accept Moscow’s takeover of Ukraine’s Crimea region.

Mattis was in Kyiv Thursday to meet President Petro Poroshenko and other government leaders.

He also attended an independence day parade marking Ukraine’s split from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Mattis is the first Pentagon chief to visit Ukraine in a decade.

Fighting in Ukraine between government forces and Russia-backed rebels has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014, and Mattis’ trip coincides with U.S. deliberations about providing weapons to Kyiv.

Former President Barack Obama rejected such proposals because he was concerned that American weaponry would worsen the violence.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has been trying to improve U.S.-Russian relations.

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