Blinken delivers sweet and sour message to Ukraine focused on corruption and Russia John Hudson Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Ukraine’s leaders in Kyiv on Thursday that the country’s future is threatened by a two-front war: the battle against Russian aggression at its border and the fight against corruption within Ukraine. The top U.S. diplomat pledged to increase U.S. security assistance to Ukraine after what he called Russia’s “reckless and aggressive” buildup of troops along its border with Ukraine, and he condemned Kyiv’s notoriously corrupt political system after the firing of an energy official.