Secretary of State Anthony Blinken
Anthony BlinkenLive: Russia attack on nuclear power plant draws condemnation The Hill’s Morning Report – Russia’s war against Ukraine continues How US is helping Ukraine fight Russia MORE and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met at the Ukrainian-Polish border on Saturday where they discussed Western support for Ukraine against the background of the ongoing Russian invasion of the country.
“The whole world supports Ukraine,” Blinken said. “Just like I’m standing here in Ukraine with my friend.”
Blinken said support for Ukraine would not only continue, but “increase,” including “security support, humanitarian support, economic support.”
He added that the pressure on Russia will increase “until this war, this war of choice, is stopped.”
“I hope the people of Ukraine will be able to see in this a vivid manifestation of the fact that we have friends who literally remain – support us,” Kuleba said in response.
Kuleba said that Ukraine is grateful for the support that the country has already received from allies, including the United States
“Well, we are content with the already established supply of anti-tank weapons and ammunition – this is one of the most urgently needed – and we are destroying a lot of Russian tanks and armored vehicles with weapons that came from our friends, including from the United States,” he said.
Kuleba urged allies to continue to support Ukraine by providing the country with “large air defense systems to keep our skies safe.”
“If we lose the sky, there will be much more blood on the earth, and it will be the blood of civilians,” Kuleba said.
Kuleba also called on NATO to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine. The Alliance turned down this request, fearing that it might provoke a large-scale war in Europe.
“At certain points, some countries said: no, we will never be able to supply you with weapons,” Kuleba said, comparing the back-and-forth arms exchange with the current exchange over the no-fly zone. “But over the past eight days, world politics has been shaken by Russian aggression against Ukraine, and now it is the countries that have never supplied us with weapons that are doing it.”
“The time will come,” Kuleba said of NATO’s creation of a no-fly zone. “This, again, is a matter of price. We – no – are Ukrainians, it is the people of Ukraine who are paying the price for NATO’s unwillingness to act.”
“We want to do everything possible to keep this price as low as possible and to make it happen as quickly as possible,” Blinken replied. “But we are in this one way or another with Ukraine… Ukraine will win.”
“We discuss and work on everything,” Blinken added. – We doing this; defense minister [Lloyd] Austin and his colleague [Ukrainian Defensive Minister Oleksii Reznikov] are doing it.”
Meanwhile, Kuleba pointed out that the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia were not productive.
“As for the negotiations with the Russians, I cannot say that there is any progress in them,” Kuleba said.