Amid diplomatic attempts to avoid a military conflict on Ukraine’s border with Russia, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken went on a visit to Ukraine on Wednesday, January 19. The US top diplomat has described the necessity to deter aggression as a way of both avoiding conflict and showing autocratic countries that aggressive actions against neighbouring countries cannot go with impunity, Ukrinform news agency reports.
Blinken went to Ukraine on January 19 to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in another show of support to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. At the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, the official planned to discuss a plan for contingencies for possible escalation in the security situation.
The Russian government has repeatedly denied having plans to invade Ukraine.
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In an interview with the Pod Save America podcast, Blinken evaluated that autocratic countries looking at Russia could draw a sense of impunity, if an act of aggression is committed. «You’ve got one country, Russia, by its actions, saying that it can just change the borders of its neighbour by force, saying it can decide for its neighbour what its decisions are going to be, with whom it may choose to associate – not the people of that country through their elected government. You have a country saying that it’s fine to have a sphere of influence where we basically bend neighbours in our area to our will, not their own choices. If we let that go with impunity, then I think we open a huge Pandora’s box where it’s not just Ukraine,» Blinken was quoted as saying by Ukrinform.
US Secretary of State on visit to Ukraine, speaks of sense of impunity in autocracies
