US secretary of state says diplomatic solution to Ukraine crisis still possible

But Tony Blinken warns progress impossible while Russia escalates pressure along border and gaslights' world

The US secretary of state, Tony Blinken, has said that a diplomatic resolution to the Ukraine crisis was still possible and preferable, but warned that progress was impossible while Russia continued to escalate pressure along the border.

Blinken was speaking after a virtual meeting of Nato foreign ministers and before a week of intensive diplomacy in Europe aimed at fending off a threatened Russian invasion of Ukraine.