Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Russia has “already lost” its war in Ukraine, citing the Kremlin’s inability to hold on to land and hit the targets Russian President Vladimir Putin put out as the goals for the invasion. As USA Today reports, Blinken cites Ukraine regaining half of the territory it took in the first weeks of the invasion, as well as Russia’s inability to force Ukraine to the negotiating table.
“The objective was to erase Ukraine from the map, to eliminate its independence, its sovereignty, to subsume it into Russia. That failed a long time ago,” Blinken said during an interview Sunday with CNN. “Unlike the Russians, Ukrainians are fighting for their land, for their future, for their country, for their freedom.”