Blinken talks to Kuleba about Ukrainian counter-offensive

2023-05-12 23:12:31

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Ukrainian colleague Dmytro Kuleba regarding the ongoing preparations for a Ukrainian counter-offensive in the Russian war of aggression. In a phone call on Friday, the two discussed how international partners might best contribute to the success of the offensive, the US State Department said. In the past few days, the indications of the start of the offensive had increased.

Blinken once once more pointed out that Ukraine’s sovereignty is of crucial importance for security and peace in Europe. The US is considered Ukraine’s key ally in defending itself once morest the Russian invasion and has provided the country with more than $36.9 billion worth of military aid since the war of aggression began.

Ukraine has been repelling a Russian invasion with Western help for over 14 months. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has repeatedly promised a victory for Ukraine with a full repatriation of all territories this year. However, Russian troops currently occupy around 20 percent of Ukrainian territory.

Zelenskyj has dampened expectations of the forthcoming counter-offensive and stressed that equipment is still lacking. At the same time, the Ukrainian army was able to record successes for the first time in the eastern city of Bakhmut, which had been fought over for months. The mercenary boss there, Yevgeny Prigozhin, attested that fighters from the regular Russian army were trying to flee.

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