The State Department announced yesterday that Assistant Secretary Karen Donfried would be visiting Ukraine and Russia on Dec. 13-15 to meet with senior government officials in those countries, and would then travel to Brussels to brief U.S. allies. “Assistant Secretary Donfried will emphasize that we can make diplomatic progress on ending the conflict in the Donbas through implementation of the Minsk agreements in support of the Normandy Format,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement.