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Mr. Mattis declined to disclose what he planned to recommend to Mr. Trump. Nor did he indicate any timetable for deciding the matter. But his comments suggested that he was sympathetic to supplying defensive weapons long a topic of enormous interest in Ukraine.

On the defensive lethal weapons, we are actively reviewing it, he said. I will go back now having seen the current situation and be able to inform the secretary of state and the president in very specific terms what I recommend for the direction ahead.

While the Obama administration had rejected providing the Javelin anti-tank system to Ukraine, the context has shifted in recent years.

The failure of the Minsk peace agreement, which was negotiated by Russia, Ukraine and European nations in 2015, and Russias active military posture in the region, have combined to bring the issue to the fore, as has the change of administrations in Washington.

Mr. Poroshenko sought to buttress Ukraines case by saying that it had responsibly used the nonlethal systems it had already received from the United States, and asserting that the anti-tank weapon would be used to deter further Russian aggression.

Any defensive weapons would be just to increase the price if Russia makes a decision to attack my troops and my territory, he said.

Not all European nations necessarily agree. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, strongly opposed the provision of such weapons when it was considered by Mr. Obama in 2015, saying that they would merely inflame the military situation.

Mr. Mattis met with Mr. Poroshenko after participating in the commemoration of Ukraines 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. The American also held separate talks with Ukraines defense minister, Stepan Poltorak.

The previous American defense secretary to visit Kiev was Robert M. Gates in October 2007. Mr. Mattis stood on a parade-reviewing stand to the left of Mr. Poroshenko as the Ukrainian president awarded medals, one posthumously, to two Ukrainian soldiers who fought against separatists and their Russian allies in eastern Ukraine.

Soldiers from the 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, a National Guard unit from Oklahoma that is involved in training Ukrainian troops, joined the military parade with Ukrainian units, which marched through the Maidan, the square where protests in 2014 led to the ouster of the pro-Russian president, Viktor F. Yanukovych.

Mr. Mattis later placed flowers and stood for a moment in silence at a memorial for 100 demonstrators killed by pro-government snipers during the Maidan uprising.

He had been on the reviewing stand with Mr. Poroshenko, other dignitaries and fellow defense ministers. What a day! Mr. Mattis observed later. This is a day that will live long in my memory: to feel the refreshing sense of independence, of freedom.

British, Turkish, Georgian and East European defense ministers joined Mr. Mattis at the event, but German, French and other Western European defense ministers did not attend.

The United States has already provided about $750 million in nonlethal arms to Ukraine, including body armor, night-vision equipment, radios and Humvees, as well as radars to pinpoint the location of enemy mortars.

Mr. Poroshenko said that Russia still had an estimated 3,000 troops in eastern Ukraine. He also reaffirmed his support for a new cease-fire, and urged the Kremlin to withdraw its troops and to stop supplying the separatists.

Mr. Mattis concurred concurred that Russian troops were still in Eastern Ukraine. Despite Russias denials, we know they are seeking to redraw international borders by force, undermining the sovereign and free nations of Europe, he said.

American military officials have already begun to think about how and where to train the Ukrainians to operate the Javelin missile system. Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson is among the officials who support providing defensive arms to Ukraine, according to administration officials who asked not to be identified because they were discussing internal deliberations.

An earlier version of this article misstated the countries whose defense ministers joined Mr. Mattis at a military parade through the Maidan on Thursday. Canada was not among them, though the Canadian government was represented by another official.

A version of this article appears in print on August 25, 2017, on Page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Mulls Providing Weapons to Ukraine.

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Jim Mattis, in Ukraine, Says U.S. Is Thinking of Sending Weapons - The ...

They are back at the usual squabbles as the clock ticks toward a Catalan independence referendum on Oct. 1. Our correspondent notes that these divisions also have practical security implications that the attack plotters perhaps managed to exploit.

A march in Barcelona planned for tomorrow could show how much these divisions are reflected in the broader public.

(Above, King Felipe VI stood between the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, and the Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, at a vigil last week.)

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In Washington, our reporters look at the efforts by the new White House chief of staff, John Kelly, to impose an order on the information flow to Mr. Trump.

The changes Mr. Kelly, a retired general, have put in place have resulted in a more functional government, administration officials said.

Separately, heres a profile of Mr. Trumps top soldier in Afghanistan: Gen. John Nicholson, above, is a combat veteran described by peers as a thinker warrior. He has not yet met Mr. Trump.

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Roger Federer, the Swiss tennis star, discussed his late-career resurgence, a rarity for any sport, with our magazine writer. Im long past the thing that you have to end your career in a fairy tale, he said of his expectations.

Mr. Federer could win his third major of the year at the U.S. Open, and fans are hoping for a face-off with his archrival, Rafael Nadal. Meanwhile, with Serena Williamss absence, womens tennis for once lacks its traditional rivalries.

In soccer news, the draw for the group stage of this seasons UEFA Champions League put Real Madrid, Tottenham and Dortmund in the same group. Barcelona gets a chance for an early revenge against Juventus. (Heres the full list.)

And the four-time British Olympic champion Mo Farahs track career ended with a thrilling win in Zurich.

President Trump must soon decide whether to renominate Janet Yellen, above, as the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve. She is speaking today at the Jackson Hole gathering of central bankers, as is the European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi.

In Croatia, Uber is taking to the sea, offering an (expensive) new boat service. It could soon be available in Greece and Spain.

There are new questions about the corporate structure of HNA, the Chinese conglomerate that is Deutsche Banks largest shareholder. We uncovered undisclosed deals and relationships that could heighten regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and Europe.

Networking is overrated, a business school professor writes in this much-read Op-Ed. Its better to focus on achieving great things.

Heres a snapshot of global markets.

At least eight people remain missing after a landslide swept through a small village in the Swiss Alps on Wednesday. [The New York Times]

Prosecutors in Denmark seek murder charges against Peter Madsen, the Danish inventor arrested in the death of a Swedish journalist onboard his submarine. [The New York Times]

The police in Rome clashed with hundreds of migrants, scattering them from a square they had camped on for days after they had been evicted from a building they had occupied for years. [Los Angeles Times]

When the French interior minister tied terrorism to mental illness, he started a debate about whether such a link existed. [France 24]

The Dutch police said there was no longer an imminent terrorist threat after they arrested a 22-year-old man in Rotterdam in an investigation into plans for an attack on a concert site. A Spanish man, detained earlier, has been released. [The New York Times]

The Czech authorities extradited a Vietnamese man to Germany over the abduction of an asylum-seeking Vietnamese executive in Berlin last month. [The New York Times]

In Thailand, the lawyer of Yingluck Shinawatra, the former prime minister ousted in a coup, said he was unaware whether she was still in the country. A court said it would issue an arrest warrant after she failed to appear before it. [The NewYork Times]

Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.

Recipe of the day: Make your own blueberry jam.

Protect your digital accounts by text or app.

In what should you invest? Ask yourself these tough questions.

We have plenty of European travel advice today: Theres our latest 36 Hours guide that finds daring cuisine and avant-garde art and design in Brussels. And heres an ode to family holidays in Romania.

In Marrakesh, Yves Saint Laurent discovered light and color, draping and caftans. A new museum in Morocco will soon celebrate his work.

In Britain, an 800-year-old coffin was damaged after a family put a child in it for a photo and knocked off a small piece. It happens.

Finally, a geobiologist in Norway reflects on how Scandinavian summers taught her as a young woman to savor time.

It all began with a question about L. Frank Baums off-the-cuff story about a faraway magical land. What, a child asked, was the name of this extraordinary place? Baum looked at a filing cabinet label, rejected A-G and went with O-Z.

Thats one origin story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the childrens book that became a celebrated movie, which opened in wide release in the U.S. on this day in 1939.

It took more than a few screenwriters (11 by one count) to adapt Baums vision into a girls dream of a land over the rainbow from Depression-era Kansas.

Theories about the story abound. Is the yellow brick road a metaphor for the gold standard in the late 1800s? Does the movie sync up with Pink Floyds album The Dark Side of the Moon?

Some scholars are skeptical that Baum set out to write a populist allegory. (Youre on your own testing the Pink Floyd claim.)

But the charms of Baums tale endure. As a Times film critic wrote after the films debut, It is all so well-intentioned, so genial, and so gay that any reviewer who would look down his nose at the fun-making should be spanked and sent off, supperless, to bed.

Tim Williams contributed reporting.

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This briefing was prepared for the European morning. You can browse through past briefings here.

We also have briefings timed for the Australian, Asian and American mornings. You can sign up for these and other Times newsletters here.

Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online.

What would you like to see here? Contact us at europebriefing@nytimes.com.

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Ukraine, Catalonia, Champions League: Your Friday Briefing - New York Times

Mattis attended a Ukranian Independence Day parade in the capital before sitting down with his Ukrainian counterpart, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, and President Petro Poroshenko.

Speaking alongside Poroshenko at a news conference, Mattis said he intended to strengthen the US relationship with Ukraine in the face of Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the ongoing conflict with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

"Have no doubt, the United States stands with Ukraine. We support you in the face of threats to sovereignty and territorial integrity, to international law, and to the international order writ large," he said.

"We do not, and we will not, accept Russia's seizure of Crimea and despite Russia's denials, we know they are seeking to redraw international borders by force, undermining the sovereign and free nations of Europe."

Mattis said the United States would continue to pressure Moscow to live up to its commitments under the 2014 Minsk agreement, saying Russia had "put its reputation on the line" when it signed up to the deal, never fully implemented.

"The US will continue to press Russia to honor its Minsk commitments and our sanctions will remain in place until Moscow reverses the actions that triggered them," he said.

The Minsk agreement calls for an immediate ceasefire, withdrawal of all heavy weapons and unfettered access to monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to Ukraine's Donbas area, which takes in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. It was negotiated by the leaders of the so-called Normandy Four -- Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany.

"We in the United States understand the strategic challenges associated with Russian aggression -- alongside our allies, we remain committed to upholding the widely accepted international norms that have increased global stability for decades," Mattis added

Mattis said he would go back to Washington with a clearer idea of the needs of Ukrainian soldiers on the front line.

A key issue is whether the United States should provide Ukraine with defensive armaments, such as anti-tank missiles, in addition to non-lethal military equipment.

The United States has approved the provision of nearly $750 million-worth of military equipment in recent years, Mattis said.

A new ceasefire is supposed to come into force on Thursday, Poroshenko said, to coincide with the start of a new school year.

Asked by a reporter what steps he would now like to see, Poroshenko urged Russia immediately to withdraw its troops from the Donbas region. Ukrainian assessments indicate that there are currently about 3,000 members of the regular Russian forces on Ukrainian territory, he said.

He described the Russian military presence in his country as "extremely dangerous" and called for the troops' immediate withdrawal, as well as a halt to the flow of new weapons into the area, the release of hostages and full access for OSCE monitors to areas occupied by pro-Russian forces.

Poroshenko also raised the idea of "the possible presence of the UN peacekeepers" in the region in order to protect a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president, who met with US President Donald Trump at the White House in June, also expressed his gratitude for America's ongoing support.

The Kremlin said Tuesday that the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany "strongly supported" the decision by negotiators to announce the latest ceasefire.

"The leaders expressed hope that such a ceasefire would lead to a sustainable improvement in the security situation for the benefit of schoolchildren and the entire civilian population of Donbas," said a statement released by the Kremlin after a phone call between the leaders of the Normandy Four.

The leaders pledged to continue working together for the further implementation of the Minsk commitments for a peaceful solution to the crisis, the statement said.

Western leaders and Kiev have long accused Russia of fostering the conflict by providing weapons and training to the pro-Russian separatists, as well as sending regular Russian troops over the border to fight. Moscow has denied the allegations.

CNN's Katie Polglase contributed to this report.

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Mattis vows US support for Ukraine against Russian 'aggression' - CNN International

In a rare window into the opaque, deadly and secretive world of missile technology espionage, Ukrainian security services have given CNN surveillance footage and details of an elaborate sting operation they carried out to snare two North Korean spies in 2011.

Ukraine has denied any link to North Korea's long-range missiles, and said Russia may instead have provided Pyongyang with the improved missile designs. Russia has denied supporting North Korea's arms program.

An officer with Ukraine's security service, who worked on the 2011 case of the two North Koreans and who we granted anonymity because of his operational role, insisted it was "impossible" North Korea had obtained any missile technology, as he was sure their espionage attempts had all been intercepted.

He said that in 2011 two other North Koreans -- who traveled to Ukraine from the country's Moscow Embassy -- were deported after they were caught trying to obtain "missile munitions, homing missile devices in particular for air-to-air class missiles." A third North Korean, tasked with transporting the actual devices out of Ukraine, was also deported.

And as recently as 2015, five North Koreans were deported for "assisting North Korea's intelligence work in Ukraine," the officer said, without providing further details.

He said, apart from the two in jail, there were no North Koreans left in Ukraine, as those not deported by Ukraine had been voluntarily withdrawn -- many working in alternative medicine centers.

The two North Korean spies seen on the grainy surveillance footage are currently serving eight-year prison sentences for espionage in the Ukrainian town of Zhytomyr, 140 kilometers (87 miles) west of Kiev.

Ukrainian officials allowed CNN inside the prison facilities to see if they would grant interviews under guard supervision.

The elder inmate is a man in his fifties from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang who is known in court documents as X5. He is gaunt, compared to the fuller frame he had in the surveillance videos, and speaks lightly-accented Russian.

His younger accomplice is a technical expert known as X32.

They are the only such spies in Ukrainian custody, although officials say they have on several occasions intercepted North Korean attempts to access their missile secrets, and as a result in 2016 effectively barred all North Koreans from the country.

The grainy surveillance video provided to CNN was filmed on July 27, 2011, on a hidden camera set up within a garage to capture the end of a sting operation that was months in the planning.

The two suspects can be seen moments before Ukrainian security service agents burst in and arrest them.

The Ukrainian missile experts they had been courting in the weeks before had informed on them to Ukrainian counter-intelligence agents.

As a result, authorities had detailed knowledge of the information they sought -- "ballistic missiles, missile systems, missile construction, spacecraft engines, solar batteries, fast-emptying fuel tanks, mobile launch containers, powder accumulators and military government standards," according to the court papers from their 2012 trial.

Some of the information related to the SS-24 Scalpel intercontinental ballistic missile, the court papers add. The SS-24 Scalpel, also known as the RT-23, is a solid-fueled missile capable of carrying up to 10 warheads that was launched via missile silos or railroad cars.

The Ukraine security footage gives a rare window into the elaborate and shadowy world of North Korea's bid to improve its ability to hit the United States and other adversaries with long-range missiles.

The court documents also reveal startlingly human moments during the operation.

The two nervous men continually whisper to each other the material they seek is "secret," and worry the flash batteries may run out on their PowerShot and Coolpix cameras as they photograph the dummy designs.

Speaking briefly to CNN in the jail where he now makes cement railings and iron rods to pass prison time, X5 confirmed he had "partially" admitted his guilt.

The court papers say he insisted his job, as a trade representative in the North Korean embassy in neighboring Belarus, was merely to arrange training in missile technology for North Korean experts -- information he didn't think was classified. He even tried to get one expert, the papers allege, to travel to North Korea and teach there.

Dressed in dark blue overalls and a cloth cap, mixing cement, X5 said he "of course" wanted to return to North Korea, and had not spoken to his family or anyone there since his arrest.

"I am serving my term of punishment. They feed us well here, we work... I don't want to give an interview for the preservation of my safety and that of my family."

He shares a well-lit cell with a TV with eight other convicts, and sleeps in a double bunk bed, with pots of vitamins and toiletries his only obvious possessions.

The second convict, X32, agreed to meet CNN, but immediately declined to be interviewed, covering the camera lens with his hand and walking away.

He has not admitted his guilt and is held in a more relaxed facility where he makes furniture to pass the time.

Denys Chernyshov, Ukraine's deputy minister for justice, said the men had been met once by two officials from North Korea's Moscow embassy, but otherwise had no contact at all with their relatives or North Korea.

"They have asked Ukrainian authorities to be extradited to North Korea to continue their sentence," he said. "But because they are held for spying for North Korea, we obviously declined their request."

Chernyshov added the pair were well-trained.

"To be isolated in another country and culture, with different food even, that brings about a particular stress," he said. "So it is clear these are well prepared, strong people."

However, he added North Korea may not turn out to be that welcoming when they likely travel home in September 2018, at the end of their sentences.

"That their task was unsuccessful, they cannot expect much of a hero's welcome on their return."

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The North Korean spies Ukraine caught stealing missile plans - CNN