“Ukraine is not going to be safe unless the Crimean peninsula is, at the very least, demilitarized,” said the US Assistant Secretary of State.
The US supports the idea of kyiv launching attacks against military targets in Crimea, as they are “legitimate targets”expressed this Thursday the US Undersecretary of State, Victoria Nuland, in an interview with the Carnegie Endowment think tank.
“Ukraine is not going to be safe unless the Crimean peninsula is, at the very least, demilitarized“, he declared. Washington’s position is that Ukraine “is owed and entitled to all of its territory, within its international borders,” which also means Crimea, he stressed.
Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, stated on Wednesday that the government of his country “is not actively encouraging” the retaking of the peninsula, and that “the decision is only kyiv’s“, while the main focus of the North American nation is to help the Ukrainian troops to advance in Donbass.
However, Nuland stated in the interview that the goals of Washington and kyiv overlap “in terms of what the Ukrainians want to do on the battlefield and what the US allows them.”plan and do“.
For his part, Igor Guirenko, press secretary of the Russian Embassy in Washington, denounced that Nuland’s statements about the attacks in Crimea are “clear confirmation of the Russian position that The US is directly involved in the conflict“. “We consider that such a position by Washington is a flagrant manifestation of the bellicose attitude of the US towards our country,” he stressed.
Likewise, the diplomat stressed that “it should finally be clear to the international community that the US is the instigator of the confrontation in Ukraine”, while ensuring that “Russia will protect its citizens and its territory”.
A “false” peace plan?
On the same day, the undersecretary revealed at a press conference the US plans to help build an ‘Army of the future’ on Ukrainian soilwhile asserting that Russia offers Ukraine a “false” peace plan, while Ukraine needs and aspires to a “just” peace.
The official recalled that this month marks one year since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine. In this regard, she insisted that Russian President Vladimir Putin underestimated the courage and tenacity of the Ukrainian people, as well as the international unity in support of kyiv.
“Ukraine presented a formula for a just peace in the 10 points of the president [Vladimir] Zelensky, and Russia keeps talking about a fake peace,” Nuland said.
The undersecretary rejected the peace conditions announced by Russia in the first weeks of the conflict. “We do not go to tolerate any kind of false peace or feigned, just give Russia a chance to rest, resupply and return,” the US government representative said.
Therefore, he argued, the US is working on training the military of the future in Ukraine, providing the country with a new generation of weapons, such as tanks. Abrams and anti-aircraft systems patriotand training the personnel of the Armed Forces.
“They will have air defenses sophisticated and durable, much stronger border defenses, and the ability to ensure that Russia cannot invade them again. They will have better radars and early warnings,” he said.
Nuland’s words about Russia’s “false” peace plan for Ukraine contrast with recent statements by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former French President Francois Hollande and former Ukrainian President Piotr Poroshenko—direct participants in the signing process in 2014 -2015 of the Minsk Agreements to resolve the conflict in Donbass— which described the true objective of these agreements as a way to give kyiv time to reinforce its Army and thus prepare it for another conflict.
Source: RT
