ZEROHEDGE | Published January 6, 2025
The United States is currently dealing with conflicts in multiple hot spots from Eastern Europe to Gaza to dealing with a collapsed Syrian state and continued standoff with Iran over its nuclear program.
But the Biden administration regrets nothing – so says Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a major end of term interview given to the NY Times and published this weekend. Among the more interesting pieces of new information from the interview is Blinken’s direct admission that Washington was covertly shipping heavy weapons to Ukraine even months before the Russian invasion of February 2022.
“We made sure that well before [Russia’s ‘special military operation’] happened, starting in September and then again in December, we quietly got a lot of weapons to Ukraine,” he said in the interview published Saturday. “Things like Stingers, Javelins.”
The Kremlin at the time cited such covert transfers, which were perhaps an ‘open secret’, as justification for the invasion based on ‘demilitarizing’ Ukraine and keeping NATO military infrastructure out. Moscow had issued many warnings over its ‘red lines’ in the weeks and months leading up to the war.
Below is the full section from the NY Times interview transcript where Blinken boasts of the pre-invasion transfers:
QUESTION: You made two early strategic decisions on Ukraine. The first – because of that fear of direct conflict – was to restrict Ukraine’s use of American weapons within Russia. The second was to support Ukraine’s military offensive without a parallel diplomatic track to try and end the conflict. How do you look back on those decisions now?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: So first, if you look at the trajectory of the conflict, because we saw it coming, we were able to make sure that not only were we prepared, and allies and partners were prepared, but that Ukraine was prepared. We made sure that well before the Russian aggression happened, starting in September – the Russian aggression happened in February. Starting in September and then again in December, we quietly got a lot of weapons to Ukraine to make sure that they had in hand what they needed to defended themselves – things like Stingers, Javelins that they could use that were instrumental in preventing Russia from taking Kyiv, from rolling over the country, erasing it from the map, and indeed pushing the Russians back.
Blinken claims elsewhere in the interview that the Biden White House kept diplomacy going the whole time, and tried to engage Moscow, but explains that this basically involved keeping the Western allies and backers of Kiev unified and on the same track.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.zerohedge.com
RELATED: US ‘quietly’ supplied weapons to Ukraine before Russia’s operation started, Blinken says
NEW YORK, January 4. /TASS/. The US began supplying weapons to Ukraine well before Russia started its special military operation, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the New York Times.
TASS | Published January 6, 2025
“We made sure that well before [the special military operation] happened, starting in September and then again in December, we quietly got a lot of weapons to Ukraine,” he said in an interview published on Saturday. “Things like Stingers, Javelins.”
Russia has repeatedly said that funneling weapons into Ukraine will not reduce Moscow’s resolve or change the course of the special military operation. US President-elect Donald Trump is expected to make good on his promises to significantly cut support for Kiev after he is sworn in on January 20, 2025.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.tass.com
Be the first to comment