Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday warned that the United States and other Western nations are "balancing on the dangerous edge" of a direct conflict with Russia. Lavrov, longtime close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, made the comment during a video address to participants in the Moscow Non-Proliferation Conference.

For the exhausted Ukrainian artillery gunners holding off Russian forces near the eastern town of Kupiansk, the U.S. aid package expected to finally pass this week is a lifeline and, potentially, a gamechanger,