U.S. Secretary of State Antony on Blinken on Tuesday announced that he had canceled a scheduled Thursday meeting with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, over Moscow’s decision to recognize Ukraine’s separatist regions as independent entities. Shortly after a meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Washington, Blinken told reporters that given the circumstances, a meeting between him and Lavrov would not be going ahead as planned. “Now that we see the invasion is beginning and Russia has made clear its wholesale rejection of diplomacy, it does not make sense to go forward with that meeting at this time,” Blinken said. “I consulted with our allies and partners—all agree.” The decision comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday announced that he would recognize the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, two Kremlin-backed enclaves that have accused Ukrainian armed forces of shelling and flaring tensions—claims that …