White Home nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan sidestepped questions Tuesday about whether or not President Biden believes Ukraine can defeat Russian troops whose invasion of that nation has lasted practically 4 weeks.
The non-vote of confidence in Ukrainian forces got here as Biden prepared to travel to Europe this week to talk with US allies about imposing sanctions towards Russia and supplying arms to Ukraine.
“Does the president consider that Ukraine can win a navy victory right here? And in that case, why haven’t we heard that from him to date?” RealClearPolitics reporter Philip Wegmann requested Sullivan at a press briefing.
“What I mentioned was that Russia isn’t going to take Ukraine away from the Ukrainian folks. It’s by no means going to have the ability to subjugate the Ukrainian folks,” Sullivan replied.
“That was not an announcement a couple of explicit slice of territory {that a} Russian advance might occupy for a time period or a couple of explicit battle that some Russian factor might win.”
“I’d refer you over to the Pentagon by way of the perfect navy evaluation for a way explicit battles and explicit fronts will play out,” Sullivan added. “However what I’ll say is that this: Whether or not Russia takes town or takes a city or takes extra territory, they’re by no means going to have the ability to obtain the aim that they set out, which was to subjugate this nation, to deliver this nation to heel, as a result of the Ukrainian folks have made very clear that they won’t be subjugated.”
CBS reporter Main Garrett adopted up, asking Sullivan: “Is it a coverage of this authorities that Ukraine ought to win this? That it ought to eject Russia and regain its sovereignty?”
Sullivan once more gave an oblique reply.
“We’ve mentioned from the outset that we’re unwavering in our dedication to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity inside the internationally acknowledged borders of Ukraine. We stay dedicated to that as our proposition for this,” he mentioned.
“However within the instant day-to-day of this battle, our focus is on making certain that Ukraine has the instruments that it must defend itself and to have the ability to successfully be certain that Russia can’t obtain its targets in Ukraine. That’s what we’re centered on proper now. However on the fundamental proposition of Russia’s — of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, from day one of many Biden administration, we’ve got not wavered.”
Biden himself mentioned at a Jan. 19 press convention that he believed Russia would win if it invaded Ukraine, which it did on Feb. 24.
“They’ll have the ability to prevail over time, however it’s going to be heavy,” the president mentioned on the time. “It’s going to be actual. It’s going to be consequential.”
Since then, Ukrainian forces have put up unexpectedly stiff resistance to Russia’s navy, which has resorted to heavy bombardment of main cities equivalent to Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol, inflicting widespread destruction and civilian casualties.
Within the 27 days for the reason that invasion started, Russian forces have taken management of only one main inhabitants middle in Ukraine, the southern metropolis of Kherson.
