Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Ukraine Thursday that Russia has to get to a point “where they acknowledge that they failed” in the war, and Russian President Vladimir Putin “right now shows no evidence that he is interested in meaningful diplomacy.”
Blinken made the remarks to NBC during a visit to a school in Yahidne, north of Kyiv, which the network says was used to hold hundreds of Ukrainians, many who died following torture and deprivation carried out by occupying Russian forces before they were driven away in heavy combat.
“The Russians have to get to a point where they acknowledge that they failed. They are not going to succeed,” Blinken said. “They already failed in what they were trying to do, which was to erase Ukraine from the map, to end its identity as an independent country, to subsume it into Russia. That’s failed.”
“There is no one to go to the table with in the case of Ukraine because Putin right now shows no evidence that he is interested in meaningful diplomacy,” Blinken added.
BLINKEN MAKES UNANNOUNCED KYIV VISIT TO REVIEW UKRAINE’S COUNTEROFFENSIVE AGAINST RUSSIA
Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks at weapons as he tours a State Border Guard of Ukraine Detached Commandant Office of Security and Resource Supply site in the Kyiv Oblast of Ukraine, on Thursday. (Brendan Smialowski, Pool Photo via AP)
Blinken arrived in Ukraine Wednesday for his fourth visit since the war began early last year.
The trip is focused on assessing the effectiveness of Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian troops in occupied Ukrainian territories.
FEARS OF GRAFT GROW AS US TRIES TO TACKLE CORRUPTION WITH NEW AID PACKAGE
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, greets Secretary of State Antony Blinken before a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool via AP)
During the visit, Blinken on Wednesday unveiled a new round of funding assistance for Ukraine, including $175 million from Defense Department stocks, $100 million in military financing, $90.5 million in humanitarian demining assistance, $300 million to support the country’s law enforcement, $206 million in humanitarian aid and $5.4 million in forfeited oligarch assets meant to support veteran reintegration and rehabilitation.
The new package also includes $203 million to help reform efforts in transparency and accountability in the country, with a State Department press release saying the package will help with “anti-corruption, rule of law and the justice sector; and to build capacity to investigate and prosecute war crimes committed by Russia,” a point echoed by Blinken at a press conference in Kyiv.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken tours the Yahidne School which is being turned into a museum, in Yahidne, Ukraine, on Thursday. The school was used as a headquarters by Russian forces who also used the basement to hold residents captive. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool via AP)
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“We’re engaged in assisting the Government of Ukraine on anti-corruption efforts and on efforts to ensure accountability and full transparency of all the assistance we’re providing as well as the security of U.S.-provided defense articles and technologies. President Zelenskyy and I discussed these issues today and the importance to Ukraine’s democratic future of continued reforms and the fight against corruption,” Blinken said.
Fox News’ Lawrence Richard and Michael Lee contributed to this report.
