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IN POLAND, NEAR THE UKRAINE BORDER — The United States hopes the war in Ukraine will result in a “weakened” Russia no longer able to invade its neighbors, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Monday — a Intensified rhetoric towards Moscow as the conflict enters its third month.
“We want Russia to be weakened to the point where it can’t do the things it did when it invaded Ukraine,” Austin said.
Austin was in Poland answering reporters’ questions after a brief trip Sunday with Foreign Minister Antony Blinken to Kyiv, where the couple met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials.
The secretary of defense was asked how he defined “America’s goals for success” in Ukraine. He first said Washington wanted to see that “Ukraine remains a sovereign country, a democratic country capable of protecting its sovereign territory.”
Then, he said, the United States hopes that the war will “weaken” Russia. “Frankly, it’s already lost a lot of military capability and a lot of its troops, and we don’t want them to be able to replicate those capabilities very quickly,” Austin said.
US sends diplomats back to Ukraine and promises support in protracted war
Austin said the United States hopes to “see the international community more united, particularly NATO.” He cited the sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and its allies as an example of how the war in Ukraine has unified the security alliance.
In a hangar in Poland filled with boxes of humanitarian aid, including diapers, bound for Ukraine, top Biden administration officials announced more than $700 million in new military aid to Ukraine and other countries and said the United States intends to resume diplomatic operations in Ukraine this week. Blinken said the diplomats will initially make day trips from Poland to Lviv in western Ukraine before the US embassy in Kyiv is expected to reopen its doors in the coming weeks.
“We will have American diplomats in Ukraine again from next week,” said Blinken. “They will then start looking at how we can actually reopen the embassy itself in Kyiv” – a process that could take “a couple of weeks”.
“We do it on purpose, we do it carefully, we do it with the safety of our staff first – but we do it,” he said.
President Biden announced Monday his intention to nominate Bridget Brink as the next US ambassador to Ukraine. Blinken said Brink, who serves as US ambassador to Slovakia, is “deeply experienced in the region” and “will be a very strong representative of the United States in Ukraine.”
Biden types in Bridget Brink as US Ambassador to Ukraine
Ukraine has not had a US ambassador since 2019, when President Donald Trump removed Marie Yovanovitch from the position — a move that was considered during Trump’s first impeachment inquiry.
Blinken and Austin said their visit to the Ukrainian capital, which Russian forces failed to capture despite an attempt in the early weeks of the war, highlighted the failure of Putin’s goals in Ukraine.
“The strategy we have put in place – massive support for Ukraine, massive pressure on Russia, solidarity with more than 30 countries participating in this effort – is showing real results,” Blinken said. “And we see that when it comes to Russia’s war aims, Russia fails, Ukraine succeeds.”
Blinken said Russia’s main goal is to “completely subjugate Ukraine, strip it of its sovereignty and independence.” From Washington’s point of view, Moscow has “missed” on this goal. Instead, Blinken said, the sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and its allies have hurt its economy, while Russia’s military is “dramatically underperforming.”
Blinken argued that another of Russia’s goals – “to split the West and NATO,” which the Kremlin says it sees as a threat to its security – has also failed. Instead, the war in Ukraine has prompted Finland and Sweden, two traditionally neutral states close to Russia, to consider joining the security alliance.
“We don’t know how the rest of this war will play out, but we do know that there will be sovereign, independent Ukraine for much longer than Vladimir Putin is on the scene, and our support for Ukraine will continue…until we see.” ultimate success,” said Blinken.
María Luisa Paúl contributed to this report.