27 Sep, 2022
19:55
Ukraine can use Western weapons against ‘territories seized by Russia’ – US
US Secretary
of State Blinken says Washington won’t recognize “annexed” regions as Russian
FILE PHOTO.
Ukrainian soldiers target Russian positions from a US-supplied M777 howitzer in
Kharkov Region, July 14, 2022. © AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka
Washington
has no objections to Kiev using Western-supplied weapons to target territories
that may decide to join Russia, as the US considers the vote to do so
illegitimate, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.
The US and
its allies have supplied Ukraine with a variety of weapons, including tube and
rocket artillery. At a joint press conference with his Indian counterpart Dr.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Washington, Blinken was asked if the US had any
objections to Ukraine using those weapons to attack targets in Donetsk,
Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson, which just wrapped up a vote on joining
Russia.
“We will
never recognize the annexation of Ukrainian territory by Russia,” Blinken told
reporters. “Ukraine has the absolute right to defend itself throughout its
territory, including to take back the territory that has been illegally seized,
one way or another, by Russia. And the equipment, the weapons that we and many
other countries are providing, have been used very effectively to do just
that.”
Russia’s “annexation”
of the Donbass republics and the two regions will make zero difference to
either Ukraine or the US, Blinken insisted. “The Ukrainians will continue to
do what they need to do to get back the land that has been taken from them. We will continue to support them in
that effort.”
In June, when
the US first sent long-range HIMARS rocket artillery to Ukraine, Blinken said he had
received “assurances” from Kiev that they will not be used on Russian
territory, and that he believed them due to a “strong trust bond.”
Kiev’s forces
have since used the US-supplied weapons to target civilians in Donbass, Kherson
and Zaporozhye, which are under Russian control. Ukraine has also bombed Crimea
and border towns in the
Russian regions of Kursk and Belgorod. Crimea rejoined Russia in March 2014,
after the US-backed coup in Kiev, while Donetsk and Lugansk declared
independence.
Blinken also
accused Russia of a “diabolical scheme” to deport or “disappear”
the local Ukrainian population and “bus in” Russians who would then vote
in a manipulated referendum to get annexed by Moscow.
Russia sent
troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the
Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special
status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and
France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko
has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time
and “create powerful armed forces.”
In February
2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and
demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will
never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was
completely unprovoked.
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