Newsdeck

WAR IN EUROPE

Putin has rejected every off-ramp offered by US to end Ukraine conflict, says Blinken

Hundreds of people gather in Manhattan's Times Square in support of Ukraine and to demand an end to the Russian invasion of the country on 5 March 2022 in New York City. (Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected every off-ramp offered by the United States to de-escalate the conflict in Ukraine and has, on the contrary, stepped up his military campaign, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

“We’ve sought to provide possible off-ramps to President Putin. He’s the only one who can decide whether or not to take them. So far, every time there’s been an opportunity to do just that, he’s pressed the accelerator and continued down this horrific road that he’s been pursuing,” Blinken said at a joint news conference with his British counterpart Liz Truss.

“He has a clear plan right now to brutalise Ukraine, but to what end?” Blinken said, adding that Ukrainians have shown that they would not accept any “puppet regime” that Putin might try to install to replace the elected Ukrainian government.

“If he tries to enforce such a puppet regime by keeping Russian forces in Ukraine, it will be a long, bloody, drawn-out mess,” Blinken said.

Senior US defence officials last month assessed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is designed to “decapitate” Ukraine’s government.

More than 2 million people have fled Ukraine since Putin launched the land, sea and air invasion on Feb 24. Moscow calls its action a “special military operation” to disarm its neighbour and dislodge leaders it calls “neo-Nazis”.

The war has swiftly cast Russia into economic isolation as well as drawing almost universal international condemnation. The United States on Tuesday banned imports of Russian oil, while Western companies are rapidly pulling out of the Russian market.

Russian forces hold territory stretching along Ukraine’s northeast border, the east and the southeast. Fighting has taken place on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv, while Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, is under bombardment.

Blinken has also slammed Russia for not allowing safe passage to civilians stuck in cities under heavy bombardment.

“The Kremlin’s proposals to create humanitarian corridors leading into Russia and Belarus are absurd,” he said.

Russia earlier this week had offered Ukrainians escape routes to Russia and its close ally Belarus, a proposal that a spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said was “completely immoral”.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Daphne Psaledakis. Additional reporting by Susan Heavey. Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Paul Simao.)

Gallery

Comments - Please in order to comment.

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.