US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that Ukraine’s position in Russia’s Kursk was critical to any future negotiations, as Moscow said Kyiv launched a counterattack in the border region.
Blinken said that the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden, which has given Kyiv billions of dollars in security assistance since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, wants to ensure that “Ukraine has the strongest possible hand to play”.
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“Their position in Kursk is an important one because certainly it’s something that would factor in any negotiation that may come about in the coming year,” Blinken told reporters in Seoul.
US officials have said that they do not expect major shifts in the battle lines in eastern Ukraine, whose leadership last year instead launched a surprise offensive on Kursk.
President-elect Donald Trump has described US assistance to Ukraine as wasteful and boasted of quickly ending the war, with his aides suggesting leveraging US assistance to force territorial concessions to Russia.
Blinken said that even if negotiations take place, Ukraine would still need “adequate security assurances” against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“There is going to be, at some point, a ceasefire. It’s not going to be in Putin’s mind ‘game over’,” Blinken said.
“His imperial ambitions remain, and what he will seek to do is to rest, refit, and eventually re-attack,” Blinken said, calling for an “adequate deterrent in place so that he doesn’t do that”.
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He did not comment directly on the operations in Kursk, where pro-Russian military bloggers reported a powerful new Ukrainian offensive.
The Russian defence ministry said Sunday that Ukraine had launched a “counterattack” in Kursk, where Kyiv’s forces began a shock ground offensive last August.
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