It’s Sunday evening in Kyiv. Here’s what you need to know

Julianne Smith, the US’s ambassador to NATO, discussed Russia’s supposed changing focus, on Sunday with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”

Smith said she didn’t think “we have evidence of that quite yet,” that the Kremlin will limit their sights on the Donbas region, but that the US and allies will be looking for it. 

Smith also defended the new actions NATO and the US introduced to continue to punish Russia in the wake of the US President’s trip, even as Ukrainian officials have voiced disappointment in the lack of support. Asked if NATO will give Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fighter jets, Smith said, “this is an evolving conversation,” but ultimately no.

“We’ve spoken with President Zelensky many times in recent weeks. We’ve heard their requests for assistance. In many cases, we’ve delivered those anti-aircraft, anti-armor capabilities, we are assessing their air defense needs,” she said. “But the answer is no if you’re asking about the Soviet-era jets, the United States has decided that the particular proposal put forward by Poland is untenable. But honestly, if any NATO ally wanted to provide those types of pieces of equipment, the fighter jets, the MiGs, that is a sovereign decision, they can take that sovereign decision. But right now, the United States is very much focused on their air defense needs. And we’re delivering multiple capabilities to try and address those requirements.”

On the potential for cyberattacks to be included into the NATO charter, Smith declined to “walk through hypotheticals,” but said she did not doubt that if an ally were to “come forward,” and invoke Article 5, the alliance “would be ready to respond and take action.”