A high-level trip to Ukraine signals a new American mindset about Vladimir Putin’s invasion
THEY CAME as Ukraine celebrated Easter, according to the Orthodox Christian calendar. They certainly did not bring peace. Yet the furtive visit to Kyiv, the capital, by Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, America’s secretaries of state and defence, brought hope of eventual salvation. “We don’t know how the rest of this war will unfold, but we do know that a sovereign, independent Ukraine will be around for a lot longer than Vladimir Putin is on the scene,” declared Mr Blinken.
Perhaps more striking still is America’s changing attitude. To judge from the secretaries’ comments, America is embracing the idea that Ukraine might not only survive, but emerge victorious against Russia. “They have the mindset that they want to win; we have the mindset that we want to help them win, and we are going to do that,” declared Mr Austin.
Now the administration seems less worried about the risks—and it may even be raising its ambition. “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” said Mr Austin, usually the quiet man of the administration. “So it has already lost a lot of military capability, and a lot of its troops, quite frankly. And we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability.
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