In the clearest indication of how far the US intends to go in reaction to the war provoked by Russia, the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin III, said that the goal is to weaken Russia to the point where it loses its capabilities future attacks. He said this after a three-hour meeting in kyiv with Foreign Minister Antony Blinken and President Volodimir Zelensky.
The US Defense Minister added that it will be taken into account for this strategy the provision to kyiv of everything that is needed to prevail over Russia. The analysis of these reinforcements will be made in Germany, this Tuesday.
“We want to see Russia weakened and nullified to the point where he can’t do the things he has done by invading Ukraine,” he said. He added that Moscow suffered significant military losses, including “many of its troops,” and that the Pentagon was working to ensure that Russia did not have the ability to “reproduce that capability very quickly.”
In a press conference on the Polish border, he maintained regarding Zelensky that the Ukrainian president “has the mentality of wanting to winand we have the mentality that we want to help him win”.
Austin said the nature of the fighting in Ukraine has changed now that Russia has moved away from the forested regions of the north to concentrate on the industrial heartland of eastern Donbas. As the nature of the fighting has evolved, so have Ukraine’s military needs, with Zelensky now focusing on more tanks, artillery and other munitions.
In kyiv, the US delegation with the Ukrainian authorities. Photo EFE
“Gain”
“The first step to win is to believe that you can win”Austin said. “We think they can win if they have the right team, the right support, and we’ll do everything we can … to make sure that comes to them.”
Austin y Blink announced a total of 713 million dollars in military financing foreigner for Ukraine. A quota that brings assistance to 3.7 billion dollars since the beginning of the invasion, not counting the new tranche of 800 million dollars that President Biden announced on Thursday.
When asked what the United States considers to be a success, Austin said that “we want Ukraine to remain a sovereign country, a democratic country capable of protecting its sovereign territory. We want to see Russia weakened to the point where she can’t do things like invade Ukraine.”
Blinken and Austin’s trip was the highest-profile US visit to the capital since Russia invaded in late February. “We had the opportunity to directly demonstrate our continued strong support for the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people,” Blinken said. “This was, in our opinion, an important moment to be there, to have detailed face-to-face conversations.”
Blinken said his meeting with the Ukrainians lasted three hours and called the dialogue wide-ranging. in particular around the aid that will be launched.
what’s coming
“The strategy that we have implemented, the massive support for Ukraine, the massive pressure against Russia, solidarity with more than 30 countries involved in these efforts, it is having real results,” said Blinken.
“When it comes to Russia’s war goals, the Kremlin is failing. Ukraine is succeeding. Russia has sought as its main objective to totally subjugate Ukraine, to take away its sovereignty, to take away its independence. That has failed.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba praised Blinken and Lloyd’s visit to kyiv, calling them representatives of the “country that did more than any other in the world.” Asked if the new announcements went far enough, Kuleba said that “as long as Russian soldiers set foot on Ukrainian soil, nothing is enough.”
“We appreciate everything that has been done, by the United States,” Kuleba said. “We understand that, for some, what has already been done is a revolution, but this is not enough as long as the war continues”.
Kuleba warned that if Western powers want Ukraine to win the war and prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from going “deeper into Europe,” then they must speed up the delivery of Ukraine’s requested weapons.
He said that it takes longer for friendly nations to decide to provide Ukraine with the most sophisticated equipment than for Ukrainians to learn how to use it. It’s about heavy weapons, that can allow containing armed forces that exceed 8 to 1 those of Ukraine.
The visit of the two North American ministers is a signal of the concern for the new stage of the war in open terrain that implies supplies of another level and greater dimension of attack. But concretely it is clear that the White House wants to prevent Russia from somehow winning out of this warlike conflict.
Source: AP, EFE and AFP
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