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U.S. Department of State Weekly Digest Bulletin Εισερχόμενα U.S. Department of State <usstatebpa@public.govdelivery.com> 7:28 π.μ. (πριν από 2 ώρες) προς εγώ Αγγλικά Ελληνικά     Μετάφραση μηνύματος Απενεργοποίηση για: Αγγλικά Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Kerry’s Travel to Egypt 02/20/2022 You are subscribed to Press Releases for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Kerry’s Travel to Egypt 02/20/2022 08:06 AM EST Office of the Spokesperson Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry will travel to Cairo, Egypt on February 20-21. On Monday, February 21 at 16:30 (GMT +2), Secretary Kerry will deliver an address at American University in Cairo on the future of international climate action in the leadup to COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh. The remarks will be live-streamed at aucegypt.edu/streaming. Secretary Kerry will also meet with government counterparts and business representatives to urge continued and increased climate ambition. Together with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Secretary Kerry will launch the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-Egypt Climate Working Group, a joint endeavor to advance bilateral and multilateral climate goals ahead of COP27. For media inquiries, please contact ClimateComms@state.gov. Secretary Antony J. Blinken With State of the Union on CNN with Dana Bash 02/20/2022 You are subscribed to Press Releases for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available. Secretary Antony J. Blinken With State of the Union on CNN with Dana Bash 02/20/2022 11:35 AM EST Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State Washington D.C. QUESTION:  And joining me now is the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.  Mr. Secretary, let’s start with what you just heard Clarissa reporting on, learning that troops from Russia and Belarus will continue those joint exercises there, past their planned end dates.  What does that tell you?  Does it make you more concerned about an invasion? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  It does.  And it tells us that the playbook that we laid out, I laid out at the UN Security Council last week about Russia trying to create a series of provocations as justifications for aggression against Ukraine, is going forward.  We’ve seen that over the last few days.  Now they’re justifying the continuation of exercises – “exercises,” in quotation marks – that they said would end now, the continuation indefinitely of those quote/unquote “exercises” on the situation in eastern Ukraine, a situation that they’ve created by continuing to ramp up tensions.  Meanwhile, they’ve been escalating the forces they have across Ukraine’s borders over the last months from 50,000 forces to 100,000 to now more than 150,000.  So, all of this along with the false flag operations we’ve seen unfold over the weekend tells us that the playbook that we laid out is moving forward. QUESTION:  So, you mentioned the false flag operation.  You have that.  You also have, as Clarissa talked about, a kindergarten hit by a shell.  And you have a cyber attack that’s already happened.  Ukraine is reporting dozens of ceasefire violations.  Is Russia’s plan to invade already in motion? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  It – as we’ve described it, everything leading up to the actual invasion appears to be taking place.  All of these false flag operations, all of these provocations to create justifications – all of that is already in train.  But you heard President Biden say this the other night:  We believe President Putin has made the decision, but until the tanks are actually rolling and the planes are flying, we will use every opportunity and every minute we have to see if diplomacy can still dissuade President Putin from carrying this forward.  President Biden is prepared to engage President Putin at any time in any format if that can help prevent a war.  I’ve reached out to my Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Lavrov, to urge that we meet next week in Europe.  The plan is still to do that – unless Russia invades in the meantime. QUESTION:  Ukrainian President Zelenskyy called for the U.S. to impose sanctions now.  He did that in Munich yesterday.  I want you to take a listen: “(Via interpreter)  What are you waiting for?  We don’t need your sanctions after the bombardment will happen, and after our country will be fired at or after we will have no borders and after we will have no economy or part of our countries will be occupied?  Why would we need those sanctions then?” And he called on you at the very least to make a list of specific sanctions public.  What’s your response? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, we’ve been in very close contact with President Zelenskyy and his entire team.  The Vice President in Munich met with him.  They had a very good meeting in which the Vice President reiterated all the support that we’ve been building for Ukraine over many months, including in the last year alone more support for defensive lethal military equipment in that one year than in any previous year.  Economic support – I announced a loan guarantee for Ukraine of a billion dollars just a week ago.  And we have rallied others to do the same thing. When it comes to sanctions, we have built, with European partners and allies, a massive package of sanctions.  The G7 countries in Munich came together, reiterated that there would be massive consequences for Russia if it pursues this aggression.  The purpose of the sanctions, in the first instance, is to try to deter Russia from going to war.  As soon as you trigger them, that deterrent is gone.  And until the last minute, as long as we can try to bring a deterrent effect to this, we’re going to try to do that. As to laying out in detail what the sanctions will be, two things.  First, Russia generally has a pretty good idea of what we’re going to do, but we don’t want to lay out the specifics in advance because that would allow Russia to try to plan against them.  So, we have very clearly – and the G7 could not have been more clear – a massive package that will unfold rapidly in unison between the United States and Europe and other countries beyond Europe. QUESTION:  And Mr. Secretary, it seems as though we’re hearing two competing notions.  On the one hand, you’re saying and the President – President Biden said clearly Russia has decided to invade.  And then on the other hand you’re saying we don’t want to impose sanctions because that would get rid of a deterrent.  So, which one is it?  And especially given the fact that you have the Ukrainian leader with hundreds of thousands of troops on his border being told that they’re going to – Russia is going to invade at any minute, leaving his country going to a forum on the world stage in order to have that kind of platform to plead with you please impose sanctions now, how is the answer not yes? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, first, we’ve already imposed sanctions.  We’ve sanctioned various — QUESTION:  More sanctions. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  First, we’ve imposed – as I said, Dana, we’ve imposed sanctions already on actors in Ukraine who are working for Russian security forces and trying to destabilize the country.  And again, and I – look, I understand where President Zelenskyy is coming from.  But these things are not at all inconsistent, because as President Biden said, while we believe President Putin has made the decision that the die is cast, until that die actually settles and until the tanks are actually moving, the planes are actually flying, the bombs are actually dropping, we’re going to do everything we can with diplomacy and with deterrence and dissuasion to get President Putin to reverse the decision that we believe he’s made.  And part of that is making very clear what he risks in terms of sanctions. That’s why we’re reiterated so strongly this weekend with the world’s leading democratic economies, the G7.  We’re going to use every tool that we can to try to get him off the course that he’s on.  If that doesn’t succeed, if he goes forward nonetheless with the invasion, then the world is very clear that it’s going to come down on him and Russia very, very hard. QUESTION:  What are the chances that Vladimir Putin is bluffing? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  There is always a chance, but every indication that we’ve seen, every move that he’s made that has followed the play that we laid out for the world to see in front of the United Nations Security Council, he is following the script almost to the letter.  So, I think while there’s always a chance, everything we’re seeing suggests that this is dead serious, that we are on the brink of an invasion.  We will do everything we can to try to prevent it before it happens.  But equally, we’re prepared, if he does follow through, to impose massive consequences, to defend – to provide for Ukraine’s ongoing defense, and to bolster NATO. And here again, what is remarkable about this is President Putin will have precipitated everything he has sought to prevent, because all of this has only reinforced NATO, reinforced its solidarity, its commitment, and indeed reinforced NATO on its eastern flank.  I was just in Munich with all of the leaders of our European partners, and I think all of us who’ve been doing this for many years have never seen a time when NATO has been more unified and is, I think, going to further demonstrate that if Putin follows through with the invasion. QUESTION:  President Zelenskyy also said yesterday that Ukraine’s economy is just getting crushed.  The head of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, says that the U.S. should also be ready for this standoff to stretch out for months perhaps while Ukraine’s economy collapses.  What do you make of that scenario, and would Putin face consequences for that? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  First, that’s a possibility as well, and it’s exactly why we announced a billion-dollar loan guarantee just last week.  That’s on top of previous loan guarantees we’ve provided to Ukraine, for a total of $4 billion to shore up its economy. At the same time, the Europeans are doing the same thing, both on a direct country-to-country basis but also the European Union making available to Ukraine, also a couple of weeks ago, a credit facility of more than a billion dollars.  We’re also helping Ukraine work directly and closely with the IMF to shore up its economy, to pursue reforms, to make sure that it’s able to stand on its feet economically. QUESTION:  But would Putin face consequences if that is ultimately what he does, he just chokes the economy there? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  We are very focused, with all of our allies and partners on ensuring that Russia does face consequences for the actions that it takes, to include actions that would involve squeezing Ukraine going forward. QUESTION:  Before I let you go, you mentioned that you did accept a meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.  That’s going to happen this coming week.  Given that President Biden says President Putin has decided to invade, is the meeting for sure going happen, number one, and do you have kind of a “Hail Mary” offer for Russia to avoid war? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, I reached out to Foreign Minister Lavrov about a week ago suggesting we meet in Europe next week, and he came back and said yes.  I went back and said: okay, the meeting’s on, provided Russia doesn’t invade Ukraine in the interim.  So, it all depends on what Russia does in the coming days.  If it doesn’t invade, I’ll be there.  I hope he’ll be there too.  And I will do everything I can to see if we can advance a diplomatic resolution to this crisis created by Russia and its aggression against Ukraine. We’ve put on the table a number of ideas that we can pursue that would strengthen security for Russia, for the United States, for Europe, if we engaged in them on a reciprocal basis.  So, there are things that we’re prepared to do if Russia is also prepared to take steps.  That’s the conversation I’d welcome having with Foreign Minister Lavrov, but it depends entirely on whether Russia invades or not. QUESTION:  Very busy day and week ahead.  Thank you so much, Mr. Secretary, for joining me this morning. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thanks, Dana.  Good to be with you. QUESTION:  Thank you. Secretary Antony J. Blinken With State of the Union on CNN with Dana Bash 02/20/2022 You are subscribed to Secretary's Remarks for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available. Secretary Antony J. Blinken With State of the Union on CNN with Dana Bash 02/20/2022 11:35 AM EST Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State Washington D.C. QUESTION:  And joining me now is the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.  Mr. Secretary, let’s start with what you just heard Clarissa reporting on, learning that troops from Russia and Belarus will continue those joint exercises there, past their planned end dates.  What does that tell you?  Does it make you more concerned about an invasion? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  It does.  And it tells us that the playbook that we laid out, I laid out at the UN Security Council last week about Russia trying to create a series of provocations as justifications for aggression against Ukraine, is going forward.  We’ve seen that over the last few days.  Now they’re justifying the continuation of exercises – “exercises,” in quotation marks – that they said would end now, the continuation indefinitely of those quote/unquote “exercises” on the situation in eastern Ukraine, a situation that they’ve created by continuing to ramp up tensions.  Meanwhile, they’ve been escalating the forces they have across Ukraine’s borders over the last months from 50,000 forces to 100,000 to now more than 150,000.  So, all of this along with the false flag operations we’ve seen unfold over the weekend tells us that the playbook that we laid out is moving forward. QUESTION:  So, you mentioned the false flag operation.  You have that.  You also have, as Clarissa talked about, a kindergarten hit by a shell.  And you have a cyber attack that’s already happened.  Ukraine is reporting dozens of ceasefire violations.  Is Russia’s plan to invade already in motion? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  It – as we’ve described it, everything leading up to the actual invasion appears to be taking place.  All of these false flag operations, all of these provocations to create justifications – all of that is already in train.  But you heard President Biden say this the other night:  We believe President Putin has made the decision, but until the tanks are actually rolling and the planes are flying, we will use every opportunity and every minute we have to see if diplomacy can still dissuade President Putin from carrying this forward.  President Biden is prepared to engage President Putin at any time in any format if that can help prevent a war.  I’ve reached out to my Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Lavrov, to urge that we meet next week in Europe.  The plan is still to do that – unless Russia invades in the meantime. QUESTION:  Ukrainian President Zelenskyy called for the U.S. to impose sanctions now.  He did that in Munich yesterday.  I want you to take a listen: “(Via interpreter)  What are you waiting for?  We don’t need your sanctions after the bombardment will happen, and after our country will be fired at or after we will have no borders and after we will have no economy or part of our countries will be occupied?  Why would we need those sanctions then?” And he called on you at the very least to make a list of specific sanctions public.  What’s your response? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, we’ve been in very close contact with President Zelenskyy and his entire team.  The Vice President in Munich met with him.  They had a very good meeting in which the Vice President reiterated all the support that we’ve been building for Ukraine over many months, including in the last year alone more support for defensive lethal military equipment in that one year than in any previous year.  Economic support – I announced a loan guarantee for Ukraine of a billion dollars just a week ago.  And we have rallied others to do the same thing. When it comes to sanctions, we have built, with European partners and allies, a massive package of sanctions.  The G7 countries in Munich came together, reiterated that there would be massive consequences for Russia if it pursues this aggression.  The purpose of the sanctions, in the first instance, is to try to deter Russia from going to war.  As soon as you trigger them, that deterrent is gone.  And until the last minute, as long as we can try to bring a deterrent effect to this, we’re going to try to do that. As to laying out in detail what the sanctions will be, two things.  First, Russia generally has a pretty good idea of what we’re going to do, but we don’t want to lay out the specifics in advance because that would allow Russia to try to plan against them.  So, we have very clearly – and the G7 could not have been more clear – a massive package that will unfold rapidly in unison between the United States and Europe and other countries beyond Europe. QUESTION:  And Mr. Secretary, it seems as though we’re hearing two competing notions.  On the one hand, you’re saying and the President – President Biden said clearly Russia has decided to invade.  And then on the other hand you’re saying we don’t want to impose sanctions because that would get rid of a deterrent.  So, which one is it?  And especially given the fact that you have the Ukrainian leader with hundreds of thousands of troops on his border being told that they’re going to – Russia is going to invade at any minute, leaving his country going to a forum on the world stage in order to have that kind of platform to plead with you please impose sanctions now, how is the answer not yes? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, first, we’ve already imposed sanctions.  We’ve sanctioned various — QUESTION:  More sanctions. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  First, we’ve imposed – as I said, Dana, we’ve imposed sanctions already on actors in Ukraine who are working for Russian security forces and trying to destabilize the country.  And again, and I – look, I understand where President Zelenskyy is coming from.  But these things are not at all inconsistent, because as President Biden said, while we believe President Putin has made the decision that the die is cast, until that die actually settles and until the tanks are actually moving, the planes are actually flying, the bombs are actually dropping, we’re going to do everything we can with diplomacy and with deterrence and dissuasion to get President Putin to reverse the decision that we believe he’s made.  And part of that is making very clear what he risks in terms of sanctions. That’s why we’re reiterated so strongly this weekend with the world’s leading democratic economies, the G7.  We’re going to use every tool that we can to try to get him off the course that he’s on.  If that doesn’t succeed, if he goes forward nonetheless with the invasion, then the world is very clear that it’s going to come down on him and Russia very, very hard. QUESTION:  What are the chances that Vladimir Putin is bluffing? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  There is always a chance, but every indication that we’ve seen, every move that he’s made that has followed the play that we laid out for the world to see in front of the United Nations Security Council, he is following the script almost to the letter.  So, I think while there’s always a chance, everything we’re seeing suggests that this is dead serious, that we are on the brink of an invasion.  We will do everything we can to try to prevent it before it happens.  But equally, we’re prepared, if he does follow through, to impose massive consequences, to defend – to provide for Ukraine’s ongoing defense, and to bolster NATO. And here again, what is remarkable about this is President Putin will have precipitated everything he has sought to prevent, because all of this has only reinforced NATO, reinforced its solidarity, its commitment, and indeed reinforced NATO on its eastern flank.  I was just in Munich with all of the leaders of our European partners, and I think all of us who’ve been doing this for many years have never seen a time when NATO has been more unified and is, I think, going to further demonstrate that if Putin follows through with the invasion. QUESTION:  President Zelenskyy also said yesterday that Ukraine’s economy is just getting crushed.  The head of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, says that the U.S. should also be ready for this standoff to stretch out for months perhaps while Ukraine’s economy collapses.  What do you make of that scenario, and would Putin face consequences for that? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  First, that’s a possibility as well, and it’s exactly why we announced a billion-dollar loan guarantee just last week.  That’s on top of previous loan guarantees we’ve provided to Ukraine, for a total of $4 billion to shore up its economy. At the same time, the Europeans are doing the same thing, both on a direct country-to-country basis but also the European Union making available to Ukraine, also a couple of weeks ago, a credit facility of more than a billion dollars.  We’re also helping Ukraine work directly and closely with the IMF to shore up its economy, to pursue reforms, to make sure that it’s able to stand on its feet economically. QUESTION:  But would Putin face consequences if that is ultimately what he does, he just chokes the economy there? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  We are very focused, with all of our allies and partners on ensuring that Russia does face consequences for the actions that it takes, to include actions that would involve squeezing Ukraine going forward. QUESTION:  Before I let you go, you mentioned that you did accept a meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.  That’s going to happen this coming week.  Given that President Biden says President Putin has decided to invade, is the meeting for sure going happen, number one, and do you have kind of a “Hail Mary” offer for Russia to avoid war? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, I reached out to Foreign Minister Lavrov about a week ago suggesting we meet in Europe next week, and he came back and said yes.  I went back and said: okay, the meeting’s on, provided Russia doesn’t invade Ukraine in the interim.  So, it all depends on what Russia does in the coming days.  If it doesn’t invade, I’ll be there.  I hope he’ll be there too.  And I will do everything I can to see if we can advance a diplomatic resolution to this crisis created by Russia and its aggression against Ukraine. We’ve put on the table a number of ideas that we can pursue that would strengthen security for Russia, for the United States, for Europe, if we engaged in them on a reciprocal basis.  So, there are things that we’re prepared to do if Russia is also prepared to take steps.  That’s the conversation I’d welcome having with Foreign Minister Lavrov, but it depends entirely on whether Russia invades or not. QUESTION:  Very busy day and week ahead.  Thank you so much, Mr. Secretary, for joining me this morning. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thanks, Dana.  Good to be with you. QUESTION:  Thank you. Secretary Antony J. Blinken On NBC Meet the Press with Chuck Todd 02/20/2022 You are subscribed to Secretary's Remarks for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available. Secretary Antony J. Blinken On NBC Meet the Press with Chuck Todd 02/20/2022 12:30 PM EST Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State Washington, D.C. QUESTION:  And joining me now is the Secretary of the State Antony Blinken.  Secretary Blinken, welcome back to Meet the Press. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thanks, Chuck. QUESTION:  Based on everything you had hinted at, and U.S. intelligence had hinted at, between yourself and the President, has the invasion already begun? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, it certainly looks like everything we said was likely to occur in the leadup to the actual invasion is happening.  We’re seeing false flag operations taking place in eastern Ukraine, the manufacturing of provocations and justifications for Russia to go in.  We just heard this morning that “exercises” that – and I put that in quotation marks – that Russia was engaged in in Belarus with 30,000 Russian forces that were supposed to end are now not ending because of the alleged tension in eastern Ukraine that, of course, is being created by Russia and its proxies there. So, all of this seems to be following the script that I laid out at the United Nations Security Council and that President Biden talked about to the nation just the other day. QUESTION:  I want to get you to respond to President Zelenskyy in Munich over the last 24 hours.  He’s clearly frustrated, and he essentially said, well, if you’re so sure the invasion is here, you’re telling me that it’s 100 percent that the war will start in a couple of days, well, then, what are you waiting for?  He’s referring to the harsh sanctions, like it’s essentially if the war has begun, then let’s go.  Well? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  You also heard – Chuck, you also heard the President say that while the die may be cast, until it actually settles, until the tanks are rolling and the planes are in the air, that we’re going to try everything we possibly can to get President Putin to reverse the decision we believe he’s made and to dissuade him.  Part of that is the prospect of massive sanctions.  And just in Munich a day ago where we were all gathered, the G7 countries, the leading democratic economies in the world, reiterated very forcefully the massive consequences that would befall Russia and President Putin with sanctions if the aggression actually goes forward. We continue to try to build everything we can to deter him from the course that he’s now set on.  And until the last minute, there is still an option to – for him to pull back.  That’s what we’re trying to do.  We’re trying to prevent a war.  As soon as you trigger the sanctions, of course, any deterrent effect they may have is gone.  They get absorbed by President Putin, and he moves on. QUESTION:  Why do you think Putin appears to not be taking these threats seriously? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, one of the challenges that we have, Chuck, I think, is that we all put our own frame of logic on what President Putin is doing that may not be the same frame that he has.  And it’s hard to put yourself in someone else’s mind, but he has decades of built-up grievances.  He has, I think, a conviction that Ukraine cannot in any way be Western-oriented, that it cannot be a successful democracy on his borders, and that fundamentally is what this is about.  He wants to reconstitute if not the Soviet empire at least a sphere of influence, and if not that at least to Finlandize his neighbors. So, our logic is very different because what we’re seeing is President Putin precipitating everything he says he wants to prevent.  He’s alienated the Ukrainian people from Russia.  He’s actually caused NATO to bolster itself, and we’ll continue to do that, especially if the aggression actually goes forward.  And NATO is now closer to Russia than it was.  And so in terms of what would appear to us logically to be his interests, he is running – everything he is doing runs counter to them.  In his own logic, there may be a rationale. QUESTION:  So, if he goes through with this invasion and he goes to Kyiv, as President Biden seemed to indicate that this isn’t going to be just a limited thing, that he’s going all-in to Kyiv, then is President Zelenskyy right when he said yesterday in Munich that the security architecture of our world is obsolete? QUESTION:  The architecture is not obsolete.  On the contrary, what we’re seeing is it’s actually being reinforced, again, largely because of what President Putin is doing.  I just came back from Munich.  I was with all our allies and partners along with the Vice President.  And what the Vice President said very forcefully in Munich, and what I heard in private from all of our partners, is that NATO now is – has more cohesion, more solidarity than it’s had at any time in recent memory.  Leading officials from Europe said that publicly.  The Vice President certainly heard that in her meetings and in the response to her speech.  So, I think we’re seeing NATO solidified, unified by the actions that President Putin has taken. Now, having said that, this aggression from Russia against Ukraine is a direct challenge to the basic principles that have undergirded our security and our peace for decades, the notion that one country doesn’t simply go in and change the borders of another by force – that it doesn’t try to subjugate another country to its will, to force its decisions on another country, including with whom that country may associate. So that’s exactly why we are all standing up and standing firmly against what Russia is doing, coming together not only in support of Ukraine but also to bolster NATO and to make it clear that there will be massive consequences for Russia if it continues down this course. QUESTION:  Look, President Zelenskyy also brought up the fact that this isn’t vague promises that the West made to Ukraine, that Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons.  And one of the reasons it – one of the prompt reassurances it got was essentially of protection from the West, from Europe, from the United States.  What do we owe Ukraine if Russia invades? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, first, Chuck, over the last year we’ve provided more than a billion dollars in assistance to Ukraine – in 2021, $650 million in security assistance, defensive lethal assistance.  That’s more in that year than in any previous year, along with humanitarian and economic assistance.  Just the other day we announced a billion-dollar loan guarantee for Ukraine.  We’ve been rallying other countries to do the same thing, to support it economically, militarily, diplomatically.  And if this aggression goes forward, that will continue.  Support for Ukraine across the board diplomatically, militarily, and economically will not only continue, it will deepen.  As the President said, we’ll double down on that. QUESTION:  Any Americans that – in Ukraine right now, will the United States Government do whatever it takes to get them out if war begins? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Chuck, we’ve been very clear for many, many weeks that in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine we will not be in a position to evacuate any remaining Americans from Ukraine.  I’ve said that repeatedly.  We’ve been in direct contact with every American we can possibly be in contact with – someone who is a resident, typically this is someone who is a long-term resident of Ukraine who happens to have an American passport.  We’ve communicated that directly to Congress.  We’ve urged them to communicate that to any Americans and groups that they’re in contact with.  We’ve been repeatedly clear about this, and we have seen people leave in recent weeks. But we are not going to be in a position – our embassy is now shuttered in Kyiv.  We’ve moved it to Lviv toward – near the Polish border.  We are going to do everything we can to guide Americans who want to leave, to help them get out through – by telling them the best way to do that, to support them as best we can, to have consular services available for them, for example, along the border with Poland.  But in terms of an evacuation, that’s not going to happen.  And by the way, that almost never happens.  Every time in places around the world where for one reason or another we’ve had to shut down an embassy, Americans have remained. QUESTION:  So, the President, President Biden, indicated that Americans probably should be prepared for perhaps higher gas prices for a short period of time, if these sanctions go through.  What about the issue of cyber attacks?  How concerned are you that the Russians are going to attack us in cyber, if you will, to try to dissuade us from helping the Ukrainians? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  It’s certainly part of their playbook.  And we’ve been engaged for many months now, first of all in helping Ukraine itself bolster its cyber defenses, and of course very much focused on doing the same for ourselves in anticipation of the possibility that Russia would engage in cyber attacks in response to us standing up to their aggression.  This is a very, very dangerous game.  We’re, as I said, strengthening our own defenses. When President Biden was with President Putin in Geneva a few months ago – this was at the time of ransomware attacks, including the Colonial pipeline – and the President was conveying to President Putin how seriously we take this and the need for Russia to do something about it because those engaged in the attacks were doing it from Russian soil.  And he noted to President Putin that if he were in President Putin’s shoes with this large oil and gas infrastructure, he knows how difficult it would be for President Putin, if something were to happen to that infrastructure. QUESTION:  Let me ask this question.  In your assessment, why did Putin – why is he escalating with Ukraine now?  Why didn’t he do this under the previous administration who wasn’t as supportive of NATO?  If you just look at it observationally, if he really wanted Ukraine and he didn’t want the United States getting in the way, he perhaps had a – more of a friendlier administration in the previous one.  Why do you think he didn’t act then? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  I hope you get a chance to ask him.  But look, here’s what I can say.  I think, and I really don’t want to put myself in his mind because that – it’s very hard to do.  But I think it’s reasonable to think that as President Putin sees it, Ukraine was slipping further and further away from his grasp over time, increasingly Western-oriented, desirous of a future with Europe.  And as that was continuing year after year – by the way, largely, again as a result of his actions and alienating the Ukrainians by seizing Crimea and invading via separatists the Donbas – as that was happening, it no doubt got to a point where he thought if he didn’t do something to change the dynamic, it was just going to happen. QUESTION:  It feels like that your meeting with Sergey Lavrov this week, if it happens, it means no war; if it doesn’t happen, it means war has begun.  Is that the fair way to look at that meeting? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  That’s a pretty good summary, Chuck, yes.  Look, we’re doing everything we can, and it’s my responsibility to do everything I can to try diplomatically to prevent a war.  And so, I will leave no stone unturned to do that.  I reached out to Foreign Minister Lavrov some days ago, suggested we meet this coming week in Europe to see if we can pursue conversations that would allow us to prevent a war and address the security concerns that we all have – the United States, Europe, and Russia – in that conversation.  He came back and said, yeah, let’s meet.  And we responded and said the meeting’s on provided you don’t invade Ukraine in the meantime. QUESTION:  So right now, that meeting’s on? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Right now, that meeting’s on. QUESTION:  Okay. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Stay tuned over the next few days. QUESTION:  Secretary of State Antony Blinken.  Appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thanks, Chuck. Secretary Antony J. Blinken On NBC Meet the Press with Chuck Todd 02/20/2022 You are subscribed to Press Releases for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available. Secretary Antony J. Blinken On NBC Meet the Press with Chuck Todd 02/20/2022 12:30 PM EST Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State Washington, D.C. QUESTION:  And joining me now is the Secretary of the State Antony Blinken.  Secretary Blinken, welcome back to Meet the Press. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thanks, Chuck. QUESTION:  Based on everything you had hinted at, and U.S. intelligence had hinted at, between yourself and the President, has the invasion already begun? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, it certainly looks like everything we said was likely to occur in the leadup to the actual invasion is happening.  We’re seeing false flag operations taking place in eastern Ukraine, the manufacturing of provocations and justifications for Russia to go in.  We just heard this morning that “exercises” that – and I put that in quotation marks – that Russia was engaged in in Belarus with 30,000 Russian forces that were supposed to end are now not ending because of the alleged tension in eastern Ukraine that, of course, is being created by Russia and its proxies there. So, all of this seems to be following the script that I laid out at the United Nations Security Council and that President Biden talked about to the nation just the other day. QUESTION:  I want to get you to respond to President Zelenskyy in Munich over the last 24 hours.  He’s clearly frustrated, and he essentially said, well, if you’re so sure the invasion is here, you’re telling me that it’s 100 percent that the war will start in a couple of days, well, then, what are you waiting for?  He’s referring to the harsh sanctions, like it’s essentially if the war has begun, then let’s go.  Well? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  You also heard – Chuck, you also heard the President say that while the die may be cast, until it actually settles, until the tanks are rolling and the planes are in the air, that we’re going to try everything we possibly can to get President Putin to reverse the decision we believe he’s made and to dissuade him.  Part of that is the prospect of massive sanctions.  And just in Munich a day ago where we were all gathered, the G7 countries, the leading democratic economies in the world, reiterated very forcefully the massive consequences that would befall Russia and President Putin with sanctions if the aggression actually goes forward. We continue to try to build everything we can to deter him from the course that he’s now set on.  And until the last minute, there is still an option to – for him to pull back.  That’s what we’re trying to do.  We’re trying to prevent a war.  As soon as you trigger the sanctions, of course, any deterrent effect they may have is gone.  They get absorbed by President Putin, and he moves on. QUESTION:  Why do you think Putin appears to not be taking these threats seriously? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, one of the challenges that we have, Chuck, I think, is that we all put our own frame of logic on what President Putin is doing that may not be the same frame that he has.  And it’s hard to put yourself in someone else’s mind, but he has decades of built-up grievances.  He has, I think, a conviction that Ukraine cannot in any way be Western-oriented, that it cannot be a successful democracy on his borders, and that fundamentally is what this is about.  He wants to reconstitute if not the Soviet empire at least a sphere of influence, and if not that at least to Finlandize his neighbors. So, our logic is very different because what we’re seeing is President Putin precipitating everything he says he wants to prevent.  He’s alienated the Ukrainian people from Russia.  He’s actually caused NATO to bolster itself, and we’ll continue to do that, especially if the aggression actually goes forward.  And NATO is now closer to Russia than it was.  And so in terms of what would appear to us logically to be his interests, he is running – everything he is doing runs counter to them.  In his own logic, there may be a rationale. QUESTION:  So, if he goes through with this invasion and he goes to Kyiv, as President Biden seemed to indicate that this isn’t going to be just a limited thing, that he’s going all-in to Kyiv, then is President Zelenskyy right when he said yesterday in Munich that the security architecture of our world is obsolete? QUESTION:  The architecture is not obsolete.  On the contrary, what we’re seeing is it’s actually being reinforced, again, largely because of what President Putin is doing.  I just came back from Munich.  I was with all our allies and partners along with the Vice President.  And what the Vice President said very forcefully in Munich, and what I heard in private from all of our partners, is that NATO now is – has more cohesion, more solidarity than it’s had at any time in recent memory.  Leading officials from Europe said that publicly.  The Vice President certainly heard that in her meetings and in the response to her speech.  So, I think we’re seeing NATO solidified, unified by the actions that President Putin has taken. Now, having said that, this aggression from Russia against Ukraine is a direct challenge to the basic principles that have undergirded our security and our peace for decades, the notion that one country doesn’t simply go in and change the borders of another by force – that it doesn’t try to subjugate another country to its will, to force its decisions on another country, including with whom that country may associate. So that’s exactly why we are all standing up and standing firmly against what Russia is doing, coming together not only in support of Ukraine but also to bolster NATO and to make it clear that there will be massive consequences for Russia if it continues down this course. QUESTION:  Look, President Zelenskyy also brought up the fact that this isn’t vague promises that the West made to Ukraine, that Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons.  And one of the reasons it – one of the prompt reassurances it got was essentially of protection from the West, from Europe, from the United States.  What do we owe Ukraine if Russia invades? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, first, Chuck, over the last year we’ve provided more than a billion dollars in assistance to Ukraine – in 2021, $650 million in security assistance, defensive lethal assistance.  That’s more in that year than in any previous year, along with humanitarian and economic assistance.  Just the other day we announced a billion-dollar loan guarantee for Ukraine.  We’ve been rallying other countries to do the same thing, to support it economically, militarily, diplomatically.  And if this aggression goes forward, that will continue.  Support for Ukraine across the board diplomatically, militarily, and economically will not only continue, it will deepen.  As the President said, we’ll double down on that. QUESTION:  Any Americans that – in Ukraine right now, will the United States Government do whatever it takes to get them out if war begins? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Chuck, we’ve been very clear for many, many weeks that in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine we will not be in a position to evacuate any remaining Americans from Ukraine.  I’ve said that repeatedly.  We’ve been in direct contact with every American we can possibly be in contact with – someone who is a resident, typically this is someone who is a long-term resident of Ukraine who happens to have an American passport.  We’ve communicated that directly to Congress.  We’ve urged them to communicate that to any Americans and groups that they’re in contact with.  We’ve been repeatedly clear about this, and we have seen people leave in recent weeks. But we are not going to be in a position – our embassy is now shuttered in Kyiv.  We’ve moved it to Lviv toward – near the Polish border.  We are going to do everything we can to guide Americans who want to leave, to help them get out through – by telling them the best way to do that, to support them as best we can, to have consular services available for them, for example, along the border with Poland.  But in terms of an evacuation, that’s not going to happen.  And by the way, that almost never happens.  Every time in places around the world where for one reason or another we’ve had to shut down an embassy, Americans have remained. QUESTION:  So, the President, President Biden, indicated that Americans probably should be prepared for perhaps higher gas prices for a short period of time, if these sanctions go through.  What about the issue of cyber attacks?  How concerned are you that the Russians are going to attack us in cyber, if you will, to try to dissuade us from helping the Ukrainians? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  It’s certainly part of their playbook.  And we’ve been engaged for many months now, first of all in helping Ukraine itself bolster its cyber defenses, and of course very much focused on doing the same for ourselves in anticipation of the possibility that Russia would engage in cyber attacks in response to us standing up to their aggression.  This is a very, very dangerous game.  We’re, as I said, strengthening our own defenses. When President Biden was with President Putin in Geneva a few months ago – this was at the time of ransomware attacks, including the Colonial pipeline – and the President was conveying to President Putin how seriously we take this and the need for Russia to do something about it because those engaged in the attacks were doing it from Russian soil.  And he noted to President Putin that if he were in President Putin’s shoes with this large oil and gas infrastructure, he knows how difficult it would be for President Putin, if something were to happen to that infrastructure. QUESTION:  Let me ask this question.  In your assessment, why did Putin – why is he escalating with Ukraine now?  Why didn’t he do this under the previous administration who wasn’t as supportive of NATO?  If you just look at it observationally, if he really wanted Ukraine and he didn’t want the United States getting in the way, he perhaps had a – more of a friendlier administration in the previous one.  Why do you think he didn’t act then? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  I hope you get a chance to ask him.  But look, here’s what I can say.  I think, and I really don’t want to put myself in his mind because that – it’s very hard to do.  But I think it’s reasonable to think that as President Putin sees it, Ukraine was slipping further and further away from his grasp over time, increasingly Western-oriented, desirous of a future with Europe.  And as that was continuing year after year – by the way, largely, again as a result of his actions and alienating the Ukrainians by seizing Crimea and invading via separatists the Donbas – as that was happening, it no doubt got to a point where he thought if he didn’t do something to change the dynamic, it was just going to happen. QUESTION:  It feels like that your meeting with Sergey Lavrov this week, if it happens, it means no war; if it doesn’t happen, it means war has begun.  Is that the fair way to look at that meeting? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  That’s a pretty good summary, Chuck, yes.  Look, we’re doing everything we can, and it’s my responsibility to do everything I can to try diplomatically to prevent a war.  And so, I will leave no stone unturned to do that.  I reached out to Foreign Minister Lavrov some days ago, suggested we meet this coming week in Europe to see if we can pursue conversations that would allow us to prevent a war and address the security concerns that we all have – the United States, Europe, and Russia – in that conversation.  He came back and said, yeah, let’s meet.  And we responded and said the meeting’s on provided you don’t invade Ukraine in the meantime. QUESTION:  So right now, that meeting’s on? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Right now, that meeting’s on. QUESTION:  Okay. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Stay tuned over the next few days. QUESTION:  Secretary of State Antony Blinken.  Appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thanks, Chuck. Secretary Antony J. Blinken On CBS Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan 02/20/2022 You are subscribed to Press Releases for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available. Secretary Antony J. Blinken On CBS Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan 02/20/2022 01:07 PM EST Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State Washington, D.C. QUESTION:  We go now to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was also in Munich and is here in Washington this morning.  Good morning to you, Mr. Secretary. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Good morning, Margaret. QUESTION:  President Biden says Vladimir Putin has made up his mind to invade.  But we spoke with Russia’s ambassador earlier this morning, and he insists there’s no invasion, no plan to invade, and only has troops on his own soil.  Do you have reason to believe Vladimir Putin is changing his mind? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  No, we don’t.  As President Biden said the other night, everything we’re seeing tells us that the decision we believe President Putin has made to invade is moving forward.  We’ve seen that with provocations created by the Russian or separatist forces over the weekend, false flag operations.  Now the news just this morning that the quote, unquote “exercises” Russia was engaged in in Belarus with 30,000 Russian forces that were supposed to end this weekend will now continue because of tensions in eastern Ukraine, tensions created by Russia and the separatist forces it backs there. QUESTION:  We understand President Biden is calling a meeting of his National Security Council today.  What decisions will be made at that meeting? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, it’s an opportunity to review the latest information, the latest intelligence, to check signals, to check plans.  I just came back from Munich with the Vice President.  She led our delegation there to make sure that we are in lockstep with allies and partners on everything that we’re going to do both to see if we can still prevent President Putin from carrying forth his decision, and if not, making sure that we’re fully coordinated with allies and partners on the response.  They reiterated that massive consequences will follow if President Putin carries forth with the aggression. QUESTION:  Well, when we last spoke on January 23rd, you told me that if Russia engages in other tactics short of invasion – hybrid actions, cyber attacks, efforts to bring the government down – there will be a swift, calibrated, and united response.  Aren’t they doing all of those things right now?  And where is the U.S. response? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  First of all, we’ve taken significant action over the – in recent months supplying Ukraine with more defensive – lethal defensive assistance over the last year than at any previous years. QUESTION:  But those cyber attacks were just attributed by the White House on Friday.  Those just happened. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  And we’ve worked closely with Ukraine to ward them off, to get back up and running.  We’ve now made an attribution to Russia for those cyber attacks.  We’re looking closely at the response that that may call for.  And we’re doing all of this in coordination with allies and partners.  If Russia commits the aggression that may be in train, all of that has been part of our plan, and we’re carrying it forward. QUESTION:  You said that you will meet with Russia’s top diplomat, but only if Russia does not invade. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  That’s right. QUESTION:  But it seems contradictory because what you are saying is that’s tanks and that’s planes, but does that mean Russia has carte blanche to continue cyber attacks, to continue funding separatists in the east?  If they keep tensions at this low boil, is that acceptable to you?  Will you still sit down and negotiate? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  It’s – it’s not acceptable.  Two things.  There are two separate things there. First of all, it’s not acceptable, and it’s one of the things that we’ve talked about in some detail with allies and partners this weekend.  That is a scenario by which Russia just keeps things at a low or medium boil, and there will be a response to that, too. But in terms of engaging Russia, my job as a diplomat is to leave absolutely no stone unturned and see if we can prevent a war.  And if there’s anything that I can do to do that, I’m going to do it.  President Biden has made very clear that he’s prepared to meet President Putin at any time in any format if that can help prevent a war.  And as long as – even if the die is cast, until it’s settled, until we know that the tanks are rolling, the planes are flying, and the aggression has fully begun, we’re going to do everything we can to prevent it. But we’re prepared either way, and we’re prepared with a response that will have massive consequences for Russia if it actually carries this through. QUESTION:  You have consistently described sanctions as a deterrent, but I know you heard President Zelenskyy really light into the Western allies in that speech in Munich.  And he accused you and the West of appeasement of Vladimir Putin over the past few years.  He said, “We don’t need your sanctions after the bombardment or after we have no borders or after we have no economy or after parts of our country will be occupied.  What are you waiting for?” What are you waiting for? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  I can’t speak, Margaret, to the last few years.  I can speak to the last few months and to the last year.  And in that period of time, the United States, again, has provided to Ukraine more assistance, including lethal military assistance, defense assistance, more in the past year than at any time in any previous year.  We have rallied other countries to stand in support of Ukraine, as well, to provide their own assistance.  We’ve rallied other countries to make clear and to put together in great detail the massive consequences that will befall Russia if it engages in this aggression.  The purpose of that is to do everything we can to deter it, to prevent a war, to deter the aggression.  And we don’t want to pull the trigger until we have to because we lose the deterrent effect. At the same time, we also don’t want to detail in public exactly what we’re going to do because that will forewarn Russia; it will be able to prepare more effectively to try to mitigate the sanctions.  So, all of this is very well thought through.  And look, I recognize President Zelenskyy is in a very difficult position as the leader of a country that is under siege by Russia.  We are doing everything we can to both help Ukraine defend itself and to make clear what will happen to Russia if it undertakes this aggression. QUESTION:  When I spoke with the Russian ambassador, he referred to Crimea, that part of southern Ukraine that was annexed by Russia in 2014, as part of the Russian Federation.  Will the U.S. in any way consider recognizing that, ceding that territory or any territories in the east of Ukraine, as a diplomatic way out to avoid a larger war? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  No. QUESTION:  No.  Hard stop.  That is not up for negotiation. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  That’s correct. QUESTION:  The President has said that the United States will continue to support Ukraine in the future after an invasion.  If there is an occupation, does that mean the United States is committed to funding and arming an insurgency? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  The President said that we will, in the event of an invasion, double down on our support for Ukraine, and that means in terms of security assistance, economic assistance, diplomatic assistance, political assistance, humanitarian assistance – you name it. QUESTION:  Secretary Blinken, good luck this week.  Thank you for your time this morning. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thanks, Margaret.  Good to be with you. Secretary Antony J. Blinken On CBS Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan 02/20/2022 You are subscribed to Secretary's Remarks for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available. Secretary Antony J. Blinken On CBS Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan 02/20/2022 01:07 PM EST Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State Washington, D.C. QUESTION:  We go now to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was also in Munich and is here in Washington this morning.  Good morning to you, Mr. Secretary. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Good morning, Margaret. QUESTION:  President Biden says Vladimir Putin has made up his mind to invade.  But we spoke with Russia’s ambassador earlier this morning, and he insists there’s no invasion, no plan to invade, and only has troops on his own soil.  Do you have reason to believe Vladimir Putin is changing his mind? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  No, we don’t.  As President Biden said the other night, everything we’re seeing tells us that the decision we believe President Putin has made to invade is moving forward.  We’ve seen that with provocations created by the Russian or separatist forces over the weekend, false flag operations.  Now the news just this morning that the quote, unquote “exercises” Russia was engaged in in Belarus with 30,000 Russian forces that were supposed to end this weekend will now continue because of tensions in eastern Ukraine, tensions created by Russia and the separatist forces it backs there. QUESTION:  We understand President Biden is calling a meeting of his National Security Council today.  What decisions will be made at that meeting? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, it’s an opportunity to review the latest information, the latest intelligence, to check signals, to check plans.  I just came back from Munich with the Vice President.  She led our delegation there to make sure that we are in lockstep with allies and partners on everything that we’re going to do both to see if we can still prevent President Putin from carrying forth his decision, and if not, making sure that we’re fully coordinated with allies and partners on the response.  They reiterated that massive consequences will follow if President Putin carries forth with the aggression. QUESTION:  Well, when we last spoke on January 23rd, you told me that if Russia engages in other tactics short of invasion – hybrid actions, cyber attacks, efforts to bring the government down – there will be a swift, calibrated, and united response.  Aren’t they doing all of those things right now?  And where is the U.S. response? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  First of all, we’ve taken significant action over the – in recent months supplying Ukraine with more defensive – lethal defensive assistance over the last year than at any previous years. QUESTION:  But those cyber attacks were just attributed by the White House on Friday.  Those just happened. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  And we’ve worked closely with Ukraine to ward them off, to get back up and running.  We’ve now made an attribution to Russia for those cyber attacks.  We’re looking closely at the response that that may call for.  And we’re doing all of this in coordination with allies and partners.  If Russia commits the aggression that may be in train, all of that has been part of our plan, and we’re carrying it forward. QUESTION:  You said that you will meet with Russia’s top diplomat, but only if Russia does not invade. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  That’s right. QUESTION:  But it seems contradictory because what you are saying is that’s tanks and that’s planes, but does that mean Russia has carte blanche to continue cyber attacks, to continue funding separatists in the east?  If they keep tensions at this low boil, is that acceptable to you?  Will you still sit down and negotiate? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  It’s – it’s not acceptable.  Two things.  There are two separate things there. First of all, it’s not acceptable, and it’s one of the things that we’ve talked about in some detail with allies and partners this weekend.  That is a scenario by which Russia just keeps things at a low or medium boil, and there will be a response to that, too. But in terms of engaging Russia, my job as a diplomat is to leave absolutely no stone unturned and see if we can prevent a war.  And if there’s anything that I can do to do that, I’m going to do it.  President Biden has made very clear that he’s prepared to meet President Putin at any time in any format if that can help prevent a war.  And as long as – even if the die is cast, until it’s settled, until we know that the tanks are rolling, the planes are flying, and the aggression has fully begun, we’re going to do everything we can to prevent it. But we’re prepared either way, and we’re prepared with a response that will have massive consequences for Russia if it actually carries this through. QUESTION:  You have consistently described sanctions as a deterrent, but I know you heard President Zelenskyy really light into the Western allies in that speech in Munich.  And he accused you and the West of appeasement of Vladimir Putin over the past few years.  He said, “We don’t need your sanctions after the bombardment or after we have no borders or after we have no economy or after parts of our country will be occupied.  What are you waiting for?” What are you waiting for? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  I can’t speak, Margaret, to the last few years.  I can speak to the last few months and to the last year.  And in that period of time, the United States, again, has provided to Ukraine more assistance, including lethal military assistance, defense assistance, more in the past year than at any time in any previous year.  We have rallied other countries to stand in support of Ukraine, as well, to provide their own assistance.  We’ve rallied other countries to make clear and to put together in great detail the massive consequences that will befall Russia if it engages in this aggression.  The purpose of that is to do everything we can to deter it, to prevent a war, to deter the aggression.  And we don’t want to pull the trigger until we have to because we lose the deterrent effect. At the same time, we also don’t want to detail in public exactly what we’re going to do because that will forewarn Russia; it will be able to prepare more effectively to try to mitigate the sanctions.  So, all of this is very well thought through.  And look, I recognize President Zelenskyy is in a very difficult position as the leader of a country that is under siege by Russia.  We are doing everything we can to both help Ukraine defend itself and to make clear what will happen to Russia if it undertakes this aggression. QUESTION:  When I spoke with the Russian ambassador, he referred to Crimea, that part of southern Ukraine that was annexed by Russia in 2014, as part of the Russian Federation.  Will the U.S. in any way consider recognizing that, ceding that territory or any territories in the east of Ukraine, as a diplomatic way out to avoid a larger war? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  No. QUESTION:  No.  Hard stop.  That is not up for negotiation. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  That’s correct. QUESTION:  The President has said that the United States will continue to support Ukraine in the future after an invasion.  If there is an occupation, does that mean the United States is committed to funding and arming an insurgency? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  The President said that we will, in the event of an invasion, double down on our support for Ukraine, and that means in terms of security assistance, economic assistance, diplomatic assistance, political assistance, humanitarian assistance – you name it. QUESTION:  Secretary Blinken, good luck this week.  Thank you for your time this morning. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thanks, Margaret.  Good to be with you. Kremlin Decision on Eastern Ukraine 02/21/2022 You are subscribed to Secretary's Remarks for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available. Kremlin Decision on Eastern Ukraine 02/21/2022 04:54 PM EST Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State We strongly condemn President Putin’s decision to recognize the so-called “Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics” as “independent.”  As we said when the Duma first made its request: this decision represents a complete rejection of Russia’s commitments under the Minsk agreements, directly contradicts Russia’s claimed commitment to diplomacy, and is a clear attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. States have an obligation not to recognize a new “state” created through the threat or use of force, as well as an obligation not to disrupt another state’s borders.  Russia’s decision is yet another example of President Putin’s flagrant disrespect for international law and norms. President Biden will sign an Executive Order that will prohibit all new investment, trade, and financing by U.S. persons to, from, or in the so-called “Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics” regions of Ukraine. We will continue to coordinate with Ukraine and our Allies and partners to take appropriate steps in response to this unprovoked and unacceptable action by Russia. The E.O. is designed to prevent Russia from profiting off of this blatant violation of international law. It is not directed at the people of Ukraine or the Ukrainian government and will allow humanitarian and other related activity to continue in these regions. Our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as for the government and people of Ukraine is unwavering.  We stand with our Ukrainian partners in strongly condemning President Putin’s announcement. Kremlin Decision on Eastern Ukraine 02/21/2022 You are subscribed to Press Releases for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available. Kremlin Decision on Eastern Ukraine 02/21/2022 04:54 PM EST Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State We strongly condemn President Putin’s decision to recognize the so-called “Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics” as “independent.”  As we said when the Duma first made its request: this decision represents a complete rejection of Russia’s commitments under the Minsk agreements, directly contradicts Russia’s claimed commitment to diplomacy, and is a clear attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. States have an obligation not to recognize a new “state” created through the threat or use of force, as well as an obligation not to disrupt another state’s borders.  Russia’s decision is yet another example of President Putin’s flagrant disrespect for international law and norms. President Biden will sign an Executive Order that will prohibit all new investment, trade, and financing by U.S. persons to, from, or in the so-called “Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics” regions of Ukraine. We will continue to coordinate with Ukraine and our Allies and partners to take appropriate steps in response to this unprovoked and unacceptable action by Russia. The E.O. is designed to prevent Russia from profiting off of this blatant violation of international law. It is not directed at the people of Ukraine or the Ukrainian government and will allow humanitarian and other related activity to continue in these regions. Our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as for the government and people of Ukraine is unwavering.  We stand with our Ukrainian partners in strongly condemning President Putin’s announcement. Kremlin Decision on Eastern Ukraine 02/21/2022 You are subscribed to Europe and Eurasia for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available. Kremlin Decision on Eastern Ukraine 02/21/2022 04:54 PM EST Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State We strongly condemn President Putin’s decision to recognize the so-called “Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics” as “independent.”  As we said when the Duma first made its request: this decision represents a complete rejection of Russia’s commitments under the Minsk agreements, directly contradicts Russia’s claimed commitment to diplomacy, and is a clear attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. States have an obligation not to recognize a new “state” created through the threat or use of force, as well as an obligation not to disrupt another state’s borders.  Russia’s decision is yet another example of President Putin’s flagrant disrespect for international law and norms. President Biden will sign an Executive Order that will prohibit all new investment, trade, and financing by U.S. persons to, from, or in the so-called “Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics” regions of Ukraine. We will continue to coordinate with Ukraine and our Allies and partners to take appropriate steps in response to this unprovoked and unacceptable action by Russia. The E.O. is designed to prevent Russia from profiting off of this blatant violation of international law. It is not directed at the people of Ukraine or the Ukrainian government and will allow humanitarian and other related activity to continue in these regions. Our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as for the government and people of Ukraine is unwavering.  We stand with our Ukrainian partners in strongly condemning President Putin’s announcement. Department of State Presence in Ukraine 02/21/2022 You are subscribed to Europe and Eurasia for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available. Department of State Presence in Ukraine 02/21/2022 09:08 PM EST Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State Today the Department of State is again taking action for the safety and security of U.S. citizens, including our personnel.  For security reasons, Department of State personnel currently in Lviv will spend the night in Poland.  Our personnel will regularly return to continue their diplomatic work in Ukraine and provide emergency consular services.  They will continue to support the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian government, coordinating on diplomatic efforts.  The United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s aggression is unwavering.  The fact that we are taking prudent precautions for the sake of the safety of U.S. government personnel and U.S. citizens, as we do regularly worldwide, in no way undermines our support for, or our commitment to, Ukraine.  Our commitment to Ukraine transcends any one location. We strongly reiterate our recommendation to U.S. citizens to depart Ukraine immediately.  The security situation in Ukraine continues to be unpredictable throughout the country and may deteriorate with little notice.  There is a strong likelihood that any Russian military operations would severely restrict commercial air travel.  Russian troops have continued to move closer to the border in what looks like plans for an invasion at any moment.  There have been reports of increased ceasefire violations in Kharkiv, Luhansk, and Donetsk in recent days.  And Russia has ordered troops to deploy into the so-called DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine.  U.S. citizens who choose to remain in these areas despite our advice to depart Ukraine immediately should remain vigilant and alert to their surroundings.  In the event of an attack, U.S. citizens should seek shelter in a hardened structure and monitor major news outlets for guidance on when it is safe to move. U.S. citizens seeking to depart Ukraine needing further information should communicate with the Department of State via our online assistance request form or call 1-833-741-2777 (in the United States) or 1-606-260-4379 (from overseas) for immediate assistance.  U.S. citizens planning to depart Ukraine should consult our guidance on how to cross land borders when departing Ukraine.  We have stationed support teams near the Ukrainian border in Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Moldova to provide assistance to U.S. citizens, and have opened a Welcome Center for U.S. citizens in Poland.< ΑπάντησηΠροώθηση