For the US, Putin believed his own propaganda about Ukraine

US State Department Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin ended up believing “his own propaganda” that Ukraine would welcome the Kremlin's military incursion with open arms, and assured that he was “wrong.”

“Looking at the situation in Ukraine, one can only conclude that Putin believed his own propaganda,” Sherman said during a conference organized by the Friends of Europe study center in Brussels, where he holds meetings with the European External Action Service (EEAS) this week.

The US diplomat pointed out that Putin “believed that the Ukrainian people would welcome the Russian invasion, that the Ukrainian army would not stand up, that it could easily overthrow the democratically elected government in Kiev.”

He also thought “that NATO would fracture, that the European Union would not be able to act quickly, that the international community would be indifferent”.

“I have been proven wrong,” he said.

Thus, Ukraine has deployed “extraordinary resistance to defend its nation, its sovereignty and its future”, while Russia “has been weakened by every measure” and “the Transatlantic Alliance is stronger than it has ever been,” while the rules-based international order “has not been broken.”

Sherman valued the diplomatic and economic sanctions that his country, as well as the European Union and the G7 (the most industrialized countries) have imposed on Moscow, despite the cost they are also having on themselves.

At the same time, he condemned that Putin's decision to invade Ukraine has led to an increase in prices for energy, food and other basic elements, leading to a crisis in global food security, and made it clear that “no country has the right to dictate the borders of another country”, something “inherent in every sovereign State”.

“If you think you can act with impunity,” he said of Putin, “that makes everyone else more insecure,” he said.

Asked about the possibility that the veto on Russian oil being prepared by the EU will not have the desired effect and will end up being sold in other markets that pay more dearly, Sherman said: “Everything we do” is aimed at “harming Putin” and exposing a “strategic failure for Putin and for the Kremlin.”

He also referred to the secondary sanctions of which the US, but not the European Union, is in favor of, and considered that “they are sometimes necessary as a tool of reinforcement”.

In Brussels, Sherman is holding various meetings with the EEAS and tomorrow he hopes to brief the press together with the Secretary-General of the European External Action Service, Stefano Sannino, on consultations held on the war in Ukraine, China or the Indo-Pacific region.

“We will compete vigorously with China where we must, in trade, economy, technology and other areas,” said Sherman, who advocated “that competition does not become conflict,” while they will also work with that country on “common interests” such as climate change, global health or non-proliferation.

But he made it clear that they will also face Beijing in areas where it clashes with their values or interests, or to preserve the international order “for which we have worked so hard.”

He particularly regretted the Chinese blockade of Lithuanian products after that country opened a Taiwanese delegation on its territory, or had penalized companies such as H&M or Nike for having withdrawn items made with “forced labour” in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, where the Uighur Muslim minority resides.

The US representative also criticized that China “failed to condemn Russia's war crimes” in Ukraine, and that various actions by Beijing seek to “undermine” NATO's decisions.

“We don't want to start another Cold War, we want channels of communication (...). But I think (Chinese President) Xi Jinping has decided where he wants China to be in the world, and it's a very different vision from what we have in this room,” he concluded.

(With information from EFE)

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