Three days before the first anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Kirby takes stock of the war’s impact and highlights Biden’s messages to the Ukrainian people following his surprise visit to Kiev on Monday.
Why did Biden decide to visit Kiev and how did he feel there?
Biden was very proud and pleased to be able to visit Kiev before the war anniversary. Surely no one wants to celebrate another birthday. Of course, we would like to end this war as soon as possible, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like Putin is ready for that. That’s why the president traveled to Kiev to convey to the Ukrainian people that the United States will support them for as long as necessary.
You mentioned that Washington will support Ukraine “for as long as it takes”. What exactly do you mean by that?
As long as it takes to ensure that President Zelenskyy is in the best possible position if and when he is ready to negotiate with Putin. We’ve said this many times before. This war can end today. There was no reason to start it and Putin can finish it today. It was his war of choice, he can choose to do the right thing and leave. Apparently, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. So we have to make sure Mr. Zelenskyy is in the best possible position.
What is Biden’s position on the assumption that the war will be prolonged?
Even before this war started a year ago, the President was very careful that we did two really important things. First, support for Ukraine, and none matched the US financial and military support for Ukraine last year.
Second, we ensure that NATO’s eastern flank is strengthened and we make it clear to Mr. Putin and the world, especially our allies, that we take our Article 5 obligation to NATO very seriously. When this war started, there were 80,000 US troops on the European continent, now there are 100,000, and President Biden has put a plan in place to keep those 100,000 at that level for the foreseeable future.
How does Biden see the unity of NATO and the European Union in the future?
The EU and NATO are still in full agreement and oppose Putin, blame him and support Ukraine. Putin thought that by arming us with energy and food he was trying to forge cracks in our alliances, but he only strengthened them. Today, NATO is more determined and willing than ever. And now two new nations are likely to join it: Finland and Sweden.
As for China, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that the US has information that China is considering supplying Russia with lethal weapons. What evidence does the US have for this?
I won’t go beyond these comments, just saying that China has a decision to make. We would, of course, prefer that China side with the rest of the world community and condemn what Putin is doing in Russia. In particular, it would be important if it adhered to the sanctions imposed on Russia and helped the rest of the world to isolate Putin.
However, they didn’t. And their calls for peace talks are rather hollow and wishy-washy, considering that China is not serious about the rest of the world condemning this war.”