According to the US government, Ukraine can win the war against Russia with sufficient military support.

"They can win if they have the right equipment and the right support," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday after a visit to Kyiv.

During a visit to Kyiv on Sunday, Pentagon chief and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a gradual return of US diplomats to Ukraine and further military aid.

"The first step to winning is believing that you can win," Austin said.

Ukraine is convinced of that.

Russia must be further weakened.

As a result of the war, the country had already "lost many military capabilities" and lost many soldiers.

"We want Russia to be weakened to the point where it is no longer capable of something like invading Ukraine."

According to Foreign Minister Blinken, Russia has failed in its goals in the war against Ukraine.

"We see that when it comes to Russia's war goals, Russia is failing and Ukraine is succeeding," Blinken said in Poland on Monday.

Russia has made it its principle goal to completely subjugate Ukraine and take away the country's sovereignty and independence.

"That failed."

Blinken added: "We don't know how the rest of this war will play out, but we do know that a sovereign and independent Ukraine will exist much longer than Vladimir Putin has on this stage."

Additional military aid

Austin and Blinken met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Sunday evening.

The two ministers pledged $700 million (€650 million) in additional military aid.

About $300 million of that will be used to buy arms for the Ukrainian armed forces.

The rest is to go to Ukraine's regional allies, who have been providing aid to the country and need to replenish their weapon stocks.

In addition, American diplomats are to gradually return to Ukraine, as a senior official at the US State Department said on Monday night.

The diplomats had been brought to safety from Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion and had been working from there.

Blinken stated that President Joe Biden plans to appoint the current ambassador to Slovakia, Bridget Brink, as the new ambassador to Kyiv in the coming days.

The post of ambassador in Kyiv has been officially vacant since 2019.

For security reasons, Washington's visit by the two ministers was only confirmed after Austin and Blinken had left Ukrainian sovereign territory.

However, the Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich had previously confirmed the presence of the government representatives in an interview.