US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that Russia “is failing” in the context of the invasion of Ukraine, launched on February 24, and announced that next week US diplomats will begin to return to Ukrainian territory, although the Kiev Embassy will remain closed.
“Russia sought to wrest sovereignty and independence (from Ukraine). That has failed,” Blinken said during a press conference near the Ukrainian-Polish border following his Sunday meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky, in which US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also participated.
Thus, he stressed that Moscow sought to “exercise the power of its army and its economy, but we are certainly seeing the opposite”. “We don't know how the rest of the war will play out, but we know that a sovereign and independent Ukraine will stand much longer than Putin will be on the scene,” he argued.
“Our support for Ukraine from now on will continue. It will continue until we see a definite success,” said Blinken, according to the US television network CNN. He also stressed that the meeting with Zelensky, which lasted about three hours, was “very productive”.
“We are very happy to have had this opportunity,” he said, while revealing that Washington conveyed to the Ukrainian president its “deep condolences” for “the loss of so many civilians and, of course, the loss of brave troops who have done a magnificent job of repelling Russian forces.”
In this regard, Blinken explained that both he and Austin showed their “admiration” for “their professionalism and commitment to defending their democracy”, while showing that the main objective of the visit was to “analyze the existing plan and how to move forward in all lines of effort”.
Blinken has revealed that they moved to Kiev on a train from Poland. “We didn't see much, except what was seen through the window. In Kiev, we went straight to the presidential palace,” he assured, before adding that they could see on the streets “evidence that the battle of Kiev was won”.
In this way, he emphasized that, at first glance, signs of “normal life” could be seen in the capital, in “drastic contrast” to what is happening in the south and east of the country, “where Russian brutality is causing horrible things to the population every day”.
Regarding the return of US diplomats to Ukraine, Blinken explained that “it will start next week”. “After that, they will begin the process of seeing how to reopen the Embassy in Kiev, which I think will take more than a couple of weeks,” he said. “We are doing it deliberately. We are doing this with the safety of our staff in mind,” he said.
She also said that US President Joe Biden will nominate Bridget Brink — the current ambassador to Slovakia — as US ambassador to Ukraine and has described the diplomat as a woman with “deep experience in the region.” The position has been untitled since Marie Yovanatovich was called to consultations in May 2019.
For his part, Austin pointed out that Ukraine's needs change with the development of the conflict and recalled that the Ukrainian authorities themselves have called for battle tanks. “We are doing everything we can to give them the kind of support, artillery and ammunition that will be effective in this phase of the fighting,” he stressed.
“We have seen what we have done here in the recent past with the authorization of 800 million dollars (around 746 million euros) given by the president (Biden), which allows us to deliver five battalions of 155 shells, hundreds of thousands of artillery pieces,” he argued.
The US Defense Secretary has indicated that Washington is working with “colleagues from other countries” to allocate “this type of capacity.” Along these lines, he said he saw “indications” that “many countries are going to step up and deliver additional ammunition and mortars.”
The Russian Ambassador to the United States, Anatoli Antonov, stressed on Monday that Moscow sent a note to Washington calling for an end to the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, arguing that this “is unacceptable” and “does not contribute to finding a diplomatic solution or resolving the situation.”
(With information from Europa Press)
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