We are now closing the live blog for today, but we'll be back again tomorrow morning to follow all the latest developments. Until then, you can keep up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.
Another Ukraine-related item from RFE/RL's Washington correspondent Mike Eckel:
Trump Signs $700-Billion Military Budget Into Law, Urges Congress To Fund It
U.S. President Donald Trump has signed into law a $700-billion defense policy bill that calls for $4.8 billion in spending for U.S. military efforts in Europe, more funding for Ukraine, and for a new ground-launched cruise missile.
The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, which sets policy guidance for the Defense Department and related agencies, must still be funded by Congress, which is deep in negotiations over a massive tax overhaul package.
"Now Congress must finish the job by eliminating the defense sequester and passing a clean appropriations bill. I think it's going to happen. We need our military," Trump said at a White House signing ceremony December 12.
The defense legislation includes billions in funding for the European Deterrence Initiative, an effort begun under Trump's predecessor Barack Obama to bolster the defenses of U.S. European allies, nervous about Russia's increasing military activity.
U.S. and NATO allies have deployed small ground units to the three Baltic countries, as well as Poland, in what is seen as a modest, but highly symbolic, presence of Western troops on the borders with Russia.
U.S. commanders have also deployed an armored combat brigade to Eastern Europe.
The defense bill allocates about $350 million in security assistance to Ukraine, including authorization for lethal defensive weaponry, something Kyiv has been asking for years, in its fight against Russia-backed fighters in eastern Ukraine.
The measure also provides for the treatment of wounded Ukrainian soldiers in U.S. military medical facilities.
Republican lawmakers, angered by U.S. allegations that Russia has deployed a new missile in violation of a key Cold War treaty, also included authorization for developing a new ground-launched cruise missile.
Russia has warned that if the United States goes ahead with the missile, it would signal the complete demise of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty.
Last week, the State Department said the administration was looking at "options for conventional, ground-launched, intermediate-range missile systems" and other measures in response to Russia's alleged violation of the treaty.
More on Nordstream (see previous blog entry):
Here's a Ukraine-related news item from RFE/RL's Washington correspondent Mike Eckel:
U.S. Official Says Upcoming Deadline For New Russian Sanctions Will Be Met
WASHINGTON -- A top U.S. State Department official said the administration was committed to meeting a February deadline to specify new measures against Russia officials and influential businessmen for Moscow's alleged meddling in the 2016 election.
The December 12 remarks by Wess Mitchell, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, come amid doubts that President Donald Trump will fulfill the sanctions that were backed by Congress in legislation passed earlier this year.
After an October deadline was missed, Republican and Democratic senators pressed the Treasury Department and the White House to move forward on the measure.
The next deadline is February 2, when the Treasury Department is supposed to release a list of Russian officials and Kremlin-connected business leaders to be targeted for restrictions. That could include limitations on financial transactions with banks, real estate brokerages, and other institutions.
Speaking to a panel of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mitchell said the Trump administration was committed to meeting that deadline.
The new legislation, called Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, also includes measures that could impact energy companies doing deals in Europe, or, for example, with commercial ties to the Russian undersea pipeline project known as Nordstream 2.
Mitchell told senators that the administration believed the pipeline was unwise for European energy security, saying that it would concentrate 75 percent of Russian gas exports to Europe in one pipeline.
"This is a political, not a commercial project," he said.
He said Germany’s continuing support for the pipeline was critical to the project's future, and it was unclear whether Chancellor Angela Merkel’s still-unformed government would pull its support.
"On energy security, Germany gets it wrong. And it gets it wrong in a way that hurts other EU, and NATO members states, both financially and geopolitically," he said.
Mitchell also had praise for Ukraine, and the administration of President Petro Poroshenko, on reforming the country’s regulatory oversight of energy markets, in particular tariffs for natural gas supplies and pipeline transit.
But he also warned that further reforms were needed, particularly with respect to state energy company Naftogaz.