Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said on Monday that Ukraine could win the war, adopting a resolutely offensive tone the day after the first visit to kyiv by American leaders since the Russian invasion.
Visiting Ukraine
“They can win if they have the right equipment, the right support,” he declared after this trip during which he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, accompanied by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“The first thing to win is to believe that you can win.
And they are convinced that they can win,” the US defense minister told a few reporters about the Ukrainians.
For security reasons, this visit to kyiv was shrouded in great confidentiality, only confirmed by Washington after the exit of Lloyd Austin and Antony Blinken from Ukrainian territory.
The secret had, however, been revealed by President Zelensky himself on Saturday, then by Ukrainian officials who had confirmed the presence of the two American ministers on Sunday.
US back in Ukraine
Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin only spoke to the press on Monday morning after a long train journey between the Ukrainian capital and Poland.
To their interlocutors, the two officials announced the gradual return of an American diplomatic presence in Ukraine and additional military aid.
The United States has just given a boost to deliveries of military equipment to Ukraine.
They are now supplying it with heavy weapons in order to resist the Russian offensive in the eastern part of the country.
World
War in Ukraine: Volodymyr Zelensky meets Antony Blinken in kyiv
World
War in Ukraine: Zelensky announces the visit to kyiv this Sunday of the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken
World
War in Ukraine
joe biden
UNITED STATES
Volodymyr Zelensky