Republicans criticize Biden’s Ukraine trip as Putin pulls out of nuclear arms treaty | First Thing

US president will meet leaders of Nato's eastern European members and Nato chief in Poland. Plus, Japan baffled by iron ball washed up on beach

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Fiona Hill, who was a Russian specialist at the White House national security council from 2017 to 2019, told the Guardian that Putin was playing to the rifts in the United States". The strategy was to increase political discord in an attempt to embolden calls for an end to US support for Ukraine.

It's playing to all those people who want Ukraine to surrender and capitulate to avoid a massive nuclear exchange and world war three, a kind of nuclear Armageddon," she said.

Why is Yevgeny Prigozhin in the news? The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group has said Moscow's military chiefs are refusing to supply the group with munitions and are seeking to destroy it, accusing them of treason", in an escalation of the war of words between senior Russian officials and the private army boss.

What do campaigners plan to do? The measure is almost certain to face legal challenges; Donald Trump pursued a similar ban in 2019 but a federal appeals court prevented it from taking effect. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) vowed to fight the Biden rule in court, likening it to the Trump restriction, which was described as a transit ban" by activists.