US Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a pledge on Sunday to increase pressure on Russia through sanctions and provide more aid to Ukraine, but warned that Russia had a military advantage that Western allies would find difficult to counter and the war would last “some time”.
“Vladimir Putin, unfortunately, has the capacity with the manpower he has in Ukraine and the misfit he has, the ability to keep grinding things up against a very tough and brave Ukraine. I think we have to be prepared for this to go on for some time,” Blinken said. to CNN.
America’s top diplomat spoke from Chisinau in Moldova, which sits between Romania, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance, and Ukraine’s southwestern border on the Black Sea, not far from the Ukrainian city of Odesa which is threatened by advancing Russian forces. Blinken has spent the weekend visiting NATO member states in eastern Europe that have taken in refugees from Ukraine.
He said of the destruction carried out under the direction of Russian president Vladimir Putin in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, that: “Just winning the battle is not winning the war, and just taking the city does not mean capturing the hearts and minds of the Ukrainian people. On the contrary, he is destined to lose. ” “Ukrainian people will not allow themselves to be subjected to Vladimir Putin or the Russian government – but that could take time, the suffering is real and it’s terrible,” he told CNN’s State of the Union Sunday morning TV show.
Blinken said he had met with refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is currently estimated at 1.5 million people. “We are doing everything we can to end this as quickly as we can, but this may still be going on for a while,” he added. Pressed on US sanctions against Russia, Blinken defended Washington’s comparative slowness in applications compared to European Union allies and its failure to cut US imports of Russian oil.
“We’re adding to sanctions virtually every day,” Blinken said. He said he had spoken to US president Joe Biden on Saturday and members of the cabinet on the issue of oil.
“We are now talking to our European partners and allies to look in a co-ordinated way at the prospect of banning Russian oil while making sure there is an appropriate supply of oil on world markets.”
SKJ