Blinken Says Russia is “Failing” In Ukraine – After making a last-minute trip to Kyiv on Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Russia is failing in its efforts to dominate Ukraine and that the United States will continue supporting Ukrainian war efforts to ensure that Russia’s military is “weakened.”
Following a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Blinken said that the United States intends to help Ukraine defeat Russia and ensure that its military can’t make similar invasions of neighboring countries in the future.
Before the meeting took place, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said in a press conference that the meeting would be used to discuss the kind of weapons that the Ukrainian military needs.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence also announced on Monday that Ukrainian troops were successfully tying down Russian troops in the port city of Mariupol, stopping Russia from reallocating those soldiers to other parts of the Donbas region.
The Ministry of Defence said that “many Russian units remain fixed in the city and cannot be redeployed and that Ukrainian troops in Mariupol have “exhausted many Russian units and reduced their combat effectiveness.”
U.S. Officials Promise More Aid
Following the meetings in Kyiv, Secretary of State Blinken and United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that the United States government had approved a $165 million sale of ammunition to assist Ukraine, as well as an additional $300 million in military financing.
The pledge was announced on Sunday, which marked the 60th day of the invasion.
Speaking to reporters in Poland, Austin said that the Ukrainian president remains committed to fighting and defeating Russia and hopes that the United States will continue to help his country achieve that goal.
“He has the mindset that they want to win, and we have the mindset that we want to help them win,” Austin said.
The U.S. Defense Secretary also said that Russian forces are now leaving the wooded northern parts of Ukraine, where troops have taken time to refuel and recuperate before being redeployed, and are headed to the industrial eastern regions of Donbas.
“The first step in winning is believing that you can win,” Austin also said. “We believe that they can win if they have the right equipment, the right support, and we’re going to do everything we can … to ensure that gets to them.”
According to Blinken, the meeting with Zelenskyy lasted roughly three hours.
“When it comes to Russia’s war aims, Russia is failing. Ukraine is succeeding,” Blinken also said. “Russia has sought as its principal aim to totally subjugate Ukraine, to take away its sovereignty, to take away its independence. That has failed.”
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
