Advisor to the State Department, Derek Chollet is one of the most senior American diplomats. In an interview at Mondeit details the United States’ support strategy for Ukraine.
The Biden administration is asking Congress for an extension of 33 billion dollars (31.3 billion euros) for Ukraine. Is the United States Waging a Proxy War Against Russia?
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin were very clear during their visit to Kyiv [le 24 avril]. We will do whatever it takes to help Ukraine defend itself. We will do our part, and we expect our European colleagues and others to contribute to the effort.
This request for assistance addressed to Congress, which contains 20 billion dollars in security assistance, comes on top of more than 4 billion already provided since the beginning of the invasion, plus 1 billion during the previous period.
We change scale…
Absolutely. This reflects our belief that this will be a long-term effort, that we must prepare ourselves, and prepare the Ukrainians, to be able to wage a long war. They have made it clear that they intend to do what it takes to defend their country. And we believe it is in our interest to do what is necessary to help them do this.
What does it mean to defend your country? What are the achievable goals?
It’s up to the Ukrainians to decide. They want to restore their sovereignty, kick out the Russian troops, be able to guard against the possibility of something like this happening again. It will be up to them to decide how far they intend to push.
Our position is that the Russian forces should leave. But Vladimir Putin could decide this afternoon to withdraw them from Ukraine. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmyhal had a good phrase during his recent visit to Washington: “If Russia stopped fighting, it would be the end of the war. If Ukraine stopped fighting, it would be the end of Ukraine. »
But when you talk about the departure of Russian forces, what territory are you talking about? Is Crimea included?
We do not recognize the Russian occupation. I repeat: we will provide Ukraine with the assistance it needs, period. I emphasize that the European Union (EU) has almost matched what we are doing in terms of security assistance. Its very important.
This effort involves a total of almost thirty countries on four continents, providing some form of assistance, lethal or not, to Ukraine. Every day new announcements are made.
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