When Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made a historic trip to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Zelensky over the weekend they told reporters that Russia is clearly “failing” in its war aims, that “Ukraine is succeeding,” and — most critically — that the US wants to see ‘Russia weakened to the point where it can’t do things like invade Ukraine.’
This marks the first time the US has spoken so strongly, going beyond the usual diplomatic talk of supporting Ukraine and rather talking of weakening Russia’s military capabilities.
In response, a clearly angry Putin claimed this proved the West was trying to ‘destroy’ Russia.
In the meeting, the US vowed to $713 million in foreign military financing to Ukraine and more than a dozen other nations to purchase new weapons, replenishing arms that were provided to Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the United States for its “unprecedented” assistance,