US says 'not seeing any sign' of an end to Russia-Ukraine war; reiterates support for Kyiv

 While the Russia-Ukraine war entered day 99, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the conflict will last “many more months” based on the current situation. During a press briefing on Wednesday, the top US diplomat said that Washington can not really predict how the situation in Ukraine would play out but added that right now, the war appears to continue for several more months. Blinken went on to say that the war could end “tomorrow if Russia chose to end the aggression. We don’t see any signs of that right now.”  

The US Secretary of Defence said, “With regard to timelines, the secretary general said it well.  We can’t predict how this is going to play out, when this is going to play out.  As best we can assess right now, we are still looking at many months of conflict.”

The US Secretary of State also highlighted that Washington would support Ukraine against Russia “as long as this goes on”. He said, “We want to make sure that Ukraine has in hand what it needs to defend itself, and we want to make sure that Russia is feeling strong pressure from as many countries as possible to end the aggression.”

“That’s the best way, we think, to bring the aggression to a close as soon as possible, to end the war, to get to diplomacy, and to stop the suffering,” he added.

In Syria, US supports ‘current fire lines’: Blinken

Weighing in on the situation in Syria, Blinken said that the United States opposes any escalation in Syria and backs the existing fire lines which allow the Islamic State terror group, which is banned in Russia, in that country. He said, “Any escalation there, in Syria, is something that we would oppose, and we support the maintenance of the current fire lines”.

“We continue effectively to take the fight through partners to dashed ISIS (Islamic State) within Syria, and we don't want to see anything that jeopardizes the efforts that are made to continue to keep ISIS in the box that we put it in,” he added.  The US Secretary of State stressed that his country believes any fresh offensive in Syria can undermine the existing stability by providing malign actors with opportunities to exploit the instability in the country. 

Image: AP