The head of the Pentagon highlighted Putin's casualties from the invasion of Ukraine: “We want to see Russia weakened”

Ukraine can win the war against Russia if it has the right equipment, said Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin, on returning from a trip to Kiev with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, noting that Washington is looking for a “weakened Russia.”

“The first thing to win is to believe that you can win. And they are convinced that they can win,” Lloyd Austin told journalists when referring to Ukrainians.

“They can win if they have good equipment, the right support,” he added after this visit during which the two leaders met with Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky. “Ukraine's position is that they want to win, our position is that we want to help them,” he insisted.

The Secretary of Defense also indicated that Washington's goal is for Russia to lose military power. “We want to see Russia weakened to the point where it can't do the kind of things it has done by invading Ukraine,” Austin said.

“He has already lost a lot of military capacity, and a lot of troops, to be frank, and we would like him not to be able to quickly rebuild that capacity,” he added.

Blinken, for his part, stated that “Russia has already failed and Ukraine achieved success”, because Moscow's goal was to deprive Ukrainians of their sovereignty and independence. “We see that Russia has not achieved the military objectives it had set for itself” and that its army is not performing as expected.

However, Russia continues its “brutal” aggression in Ukraine, which Ukrainians strongly repel, he said. In addition, Moscow continues to try to separate the West and NATO, but as long as there are new states seeking to join the Atlantic Alliance, he stressed. “We want to see a more united international community, especially NATO,” Austin said for his part.

Blinken and Lloyd announced the progressive return of a US diplomatic presence in Ukraine and new direct and indirect military aid to Kiev for $700 million.

The United States has just accelerated shipments of military equipment to Ukraine with the delivery of heavy weapons, so that it can withstand the Russian offensive in the eastern part of the country.

Zelensky had urged Americans not to arrive empty-handed. The US authorities said they believed that the new aid would resolve at least part of the Ukrainian urgent requests. New artillery equipment, including howitzer guns, also continues to be delivered at a good pace to Ukrainian forces, which are being instructed on their use in neighbouring countries, according to the authorities.

On the diplomatic front, Blinken told Zelensky that Biden would announce his nomination of veteran diplomat Bridget Brink as the next US ambassador to Ukraine. After a career as a foreign official, Brink has been an ambassador to Slovakia since 2019. He previously held positions in Serbia, Cyprus, Georgia and Uzbekistan, as well as on the National Security Council of the White House. The position requires confirmation in the Senate.

From Poland, Blinken planned to return to Washington, while Austin would head to Ramstein, Germany, for a Tuesday meeting of NATO Defense Ministers and other donor countries.

(With information from AFP, EFE and AP)

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