Antony Blinken: Russia shows no "significant" desire to stop war
Russia has not shown any "significant" desire to end the war in Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, shortly after Russian leader Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that his country supported an end "as soon as possible" of this war, a term he used for the first time. In this context, security expert Michael Horowitz claims that the war could last years, reports the international media.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, answering journalists' questions, used the word "war" for the first time. Before that, the Kremlin leader exclusively used the term "special military operation", and for using the word "war" in connection with the current events in Ukraine, Russian citizens were threatened with criminal liability for discrediting the Armed Forces. The precedent for this was the lawsuit against the Telegram channel "Network Freedoms". "Russia's goal is to end this war. He will strive for it and will continue to fight," Putin told reporters. Earlier, observers at The Financial Times published an article saying Russian President Vladimir Putin had begun preparing Russians for a protracted war with Ukraine, calling the war situation "extremely difficult." It was noted that despite the difficulties faced by the invaders, Putin will not give up on his original goals in Ukraine. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a press conference the day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's visit to Washington that Russia had shown no interest in engaging in meaningful diplomacy to put end of the war. The US announced a new arms delivery on Wednesday and responded to one of Kiev's major demands - the delivery of an improved Patriot surface-to-air missile system. In the context, Vladimir Putin mentioned that "Patriot, it is quite an old system, and Russia will find an antidote to it."
