Here's an update from RFE/RL's news desk:
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said today that Moscow will take counter measures if Washington imposes new sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
On December 11, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives unanimously passed the Ukraine Freedom Support Act, which would approve fresh sanctions against Moscow and allow Washington to provide lethal military assistance to Kyiv for its fight against Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
U.S. President Barack Obama is yet to sign the bill into law.
"Certainly, we will not be able to leave that without an answer," Ryabkov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
The bill would open the way for the provision of up to $350 million worth of military hardware to Ukraine --including the delivery of antitank and antiarmor weapons, radar, surveillance drones, and communications equipment.
Ukrainian lawmakers welcomed the move as a "historic decision."
(Reuters, Interfax, AFP)