The State Department on Tuesday said that the Kremlin’s attempts to instill fear and hopelessness in the hearts of Ukrainians “are failing,” as the Department’s spokesperson Ned Price put it, TURAN’s U.S. correspondent reports.
“Amid the sounds of warning sirens and the uncertainty of daily life, the people of Ukraine honored their heroes and celebrated their successes on the battlefield,” Price told a daily press briefing.
Asked by TURAN why Russia was stepping up its drone attacks during the past couple of days, Price said, “… what is clear to everyone is that President Putin’s war aims have been a failure.”
“They have been a failure since the earliest days of this conflict,” he said. “The advances that our Ukrainian partners have made in recent months and recent weeks have again put a spotlight on the failings that we’ve seen from the Russian Federation. Whether this is a case of pure barbarism and vindictiveness or something else, I’m not in a position to characterize that.”
He went on to add, “the Russians are increasingly turning to critical infrastructure, to energy targets, to civilian targets, and that to us reeks of barbarism, desperation, and ultimately a failing strategy,”
According to Price, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed, maimed, and wounded, and many have been victims of war crimes and other atrocities committed by Russia and Russian-backed forces. Putin’s war has also displaced millions; there are now more than 5.9 million internally displaced people in Ukraine, and more than 7.8 million refugees from Ukraine have fled the country.
“The Kremlin has furthermore made life harder for families around the world by stymying essential food shipments from reaching developing countries and exacerbating volatility in the energy markets, which has affected supply chains and compounded inflation,” Price said.
In the meantime he added that the Kremlin’s plans to splinter transatlantic unity “have had the opposite effect”.
“We look forward to Finland and Sweden joining an expanded NATO Alliance, which is stronger and more purposeful than ever. EU and NATO member states remain fully committed to standing with and supporting Ukraine” he said.
On December 29th, Biden signed the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act that will provide $44.9 billion in emergency funds to support Ukraine and other partners, and to address the global impacts of the war.
While traditionally the holidays are a time of celebration and peace, Price said, Russia “chose to ramp up its campaign to weaponize winter, subjecting the people of Ukraine to a barrage of missile and drone attacks on cities and critical infrastructure.”
“We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. As we have said, President Putin can choose to end this war today. We call on Russia to stop its attacks, to withdraw its troops from Ukraine, and to commit to peace in 2023,” he concluded.
Alex Raufoglu
Washington D.C.
Source: Turan News Agency