Ukraine You can win the war against Russia if you have the right equipment, declared the pentagon chief lloyd austinreturning from a trip to kyiv with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken which ensured that Russia “has already failed.” “The first thing to win is to believe that you can win. And they are convinced that they can win,” Lloyd Austin told reporters, referring to the Ukrainians. “They can win if they have good equipment, adequate support,” he added after this visit during which the two officials met with Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky.
Blinken and Lloyd announced the progressive return of a US diplomatic presence in Ukraine and a new military aid for kyiv, direct and indirect, por 700 million dollars.
USA It has just accelerated shipments of military equipment to Ukraine with the delivery of heavy weapons, so that it resists the Russian offensive in the eastern part of the country. “We want to see Russia weakened to the point where it can’t do the kinds of things it has done by invading Ukraine,” Austin said. “He’s already lost a lot of military capability, and a lot of troops, to be frank, and we’d like him not to be able to quickly rebuild that capability,” he added.
The visit was intended show Western support for Ukraineand cabinet secretaries also promised new aid worth $713 million for the Zelensky government and the countries of the region, where the Russian invasion has raised fears of further aggression by Moscow. Also highlighted was the change in the conflict since Ukrainian forces, armed with a massive influx of weapons from the West, successfully repelled a Russian assault on Kyiv.
“Our focus in the meeting was to talk about those things that would allow us to win the fight today and also build for tomorrow,” Austin said at the briefing, calling the meeting in Kyiv as “very productive”.
Russian forces have regrouped to try to capture more territory in the southeastern Donbas region, allowing foreign leaders to visit the capital and some Western nations to resume diplomatic presence in recent weeks, but Washington has been cautious about the return amid sporadic Russian missile attacks.
“Battle for kyiv Won”
“We certainly saw people on the streets of kyiv, evidence of the fact that the battle for kyiv was won,” Blinken told the briefing, providing footage of the train ride from Poland. “But that contrasts with what happens in other parts of Ukraine, in the south and in the east, where the russian brutality is just horrible“However, the delegation traveled directly to kyiv by train and did not have many opportunities to speak with Ukrainians beyond meeting with officials, he added.
Previously, US officials had rejected media requests to accompany the two officials to Ukraine, citing security concerns. They briefed journalists in Poland on the condition that the trip not be reported until the delegation was safely out of Ukraine.
Austin will now travel to Germany, where he will host his counterparts from more than 20 countries and the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenbergat the US Ramstein air base, to discuss Ukraine’s defense needs, a Pentagon official said.
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The Meeting Blinken and Austin had with Zelenskiy, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro KulebaDefense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and other officials lasted almost three hours, exceeding the allotted time of 90 minutes.
The american diplomats they left the kyiv embassy almost two weeks before the February 24 invasion, moving some functions to the western city of Lviv before finally relocating to Poland. Diplomats will initially resume “day trips” across the border to Lviv in the next week and officials are accelerating plans to return to kyiv, the State Department official said.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.