Washington (CNN) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said there will be an independent Ukraine "a lot longer than there's going to be a Vladimir Putin," as the Russian leader continues his unprovoked invasion of the country.
"One way or the other, Ukraine will be there and at some point Putin won't," Blinken told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room."
His comments come as new satellite images show widespread destruction across Ukraine, including damaged houses in a village near Kyiv and smoldering homes in the besieged city of Mariupol, where more than 2,500 civilians have died, Ukrainian officials estimate. The International Organization for Migration said 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 assessing the most effective way to get military aid into Ukraine without triggering a wider war.
While administration officials say the effort to provide Ukrainian forces with American-made weapons such as Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles has been largely successful, the White House is under intense pressure to do more.
cozzeema on March 16th, 2022 at 03:14 UTC »
I feel a plan in those words.
MelodicTemporary6957 on March 16th, 2022 at 01:25 UTC »
I do hope he is right. Russia is being controlled by a terrorist regime and sooner or later it will beak up.
Razwog on March 16th, 2022 at 00:50 UTC »
He's probably right. I don't know how Russia would be able to pull off an occupation of Ukraine right now. Russia's military has been struggling way too hard for them to meet their objectives, even as default looms on the country's economic horizon.
The Battle of Mosul (remember, that was one city) was an 8 month bloodbath with complete air superiority and better equipped coalition forces fighting people armed with improvised IEDs, car bombs and makeshift missiles made out of propane tanks and ballbearings. Even if Russia does take Ukraine, they'd have to fight the best equipped insurgency in human history. Good luck with that frankly.