Ukraine news: Blinken blasts Putin by warning he will lead Russia to ‘strategic defeat’ | World | News

“You can win a battle, but that doesn’t mean you win the war.

“On the contrary, you can take a city, but you can’t take the hearts and minds of its people and Ukrainians are demonstrating that every single day.

“We’ve already seen that Russia has failed in its chief objectives.

“It’s not been able to hold Ukraine.

“It’s not going to be able to hold Ukraine in the long term.”

Mr Blinken, who was appointed to Cabinet shortly after Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, went on to claim that even if Putin was able to install a puppet regime in Kyiv, Ukrainians would never approve.

He said: “I think it’s pretty evident that they will never accept that.”

Blinken also attempted to clarify the situation around potential Polish air support for Ukraine.

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He said: “I think what we’re seeing is that Poland’s proposal shows that there are some complexities that the issue presents when it comes to providing security assistance.

“Departing from a US-NATO base in Germany to fly into airspace contested with Russia over Ukraine raises some serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance.”