US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday there will be an independent Ukraine “much longer than there will be Vladimir Putin”, as the Russian leader continues his unprovoked invasion of the country.
“One way or another Ukraine will be there and at some point Putin won’t be,” Blinken told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.”
His comments come as new satellite images show widespread destruction across Ukraine, including damaged homes in a village near kyiv and burning houses in the besieged city of Mariupol, where more than 2,500 civilians have died, say Ukrainian officials. The International Organization for Migration said on Tuesday that more than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion.
Nearly three weeks into the conflict, the Biden administration is still weighing the most effective way to deliver military aid to Ukraine without starting a wider war.
While administration officials say efforts to supply Ukrainian forces with American-made weapons such as the Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles have been largely successful, the White House is under intense pressure to do more. .
Trump said on Tuesday that the United States was “working as hard as we can to limit, stop, end this war of choice that Russia is waging.”
“We do it through the support we give to Ukraine every day. We do it through the pressure we put on Russia every day,” he said, adding that his hope is that death and destruction can be completed “as soon as possible”.
In a recent call, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged President Joe Biden to impose more sanctions to further tighten Russia.
According to multiple sources familiar with the call, Zelensky specifically asked Biden to continue his efforts to cut Russia off from international trade and to continue targeting Russia’s elite as the US continued to add more oligarchs. and their families to their sanctions list.
Zelensky also mentioned closing Russia’s access to international waterways during the call.
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