US Secretary of State Anthony BlinkenWASHINGTON, Apr 3US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken evaded a direct answer to the question of whether the United States would provide security guarantees to Ukraine as part of a settlement with Russia, but promised to do everything so that the country had the necessary capabilities to defend itself. «All this is up to the Ukrainians. That is, if they agree on something that meets their needs, preserves their sovereignty, their independence, we will support them. We will not be less Ukrainians than Ukrainians themselves. We will not be more Ukrainians than Ukrainians,» Blinken told CNN.
White House: US will give Ukraine the right to determine its own political futureUkrainian authorities have previously spoken about agreeing to a non-aligned status with security guarantees from UN Security Council member states, as well as Turkey, Germany, Canada, Italy, Poland and Israel. «As for the future, we our allies and partners will want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to ensure that this does not happen again that Ukraine has the ability to defend itself, to deter Russian aggression, we will look at everything we can do to support such exodus,» Blinken added. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at the military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and, as of March 25, they have completed the main tasks of the first stage — they have significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
