Antony Blinken not ruling out US military intervention in Ukraine

The US Secretary of State said military intervention in the Ukraine-Russia conflict was not being ruled out

Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, fresh from his meeting in Geneva last Friday 21 with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, is now back on home soil, and faced the American television interviewers this Sunday, January 23.

Speaking with Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet The Press, Blinken told him, “It is certainly possible that the diplomacy the Russians are engaged in is simply going through the motions, and it won’t affect their ultimate decision about whether to invade or in some other way intervene, or not in Ukraine”.
“But, we have a responsibility to see the diplomacy through, for as far and as long as we can go, because it’s the more responsible way to bring this to a closure”, he added.
Blinken pointed out that should Putin decide to invade, then the US, along with Europe, were ‘preparing massive consequences for Russia if it invades Ukraine again’.
When pressed as to whether he thought Kyiv “appears safe, at least in the near term”, he refused to give a direct answer, preferring to reply, “This is something again that we’re tracking intensely, hour by hour and certainly day by day”.
In a second interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, the Secretary of State was more direct, offering, “If a single additional Russian force goes into Ukraine in an aggressive way, as I said, that would trigger a swift, a severe and a united response from us and from Europe”.
With Russia amassing more than 100,000 troops on the Ukraine border, Moscow is reportedly still insisting it has no intention of invading its former territory. During the meeting in Geneva, Lavrov had asked Blinken for a written response from the US to its demands for security guarantees, two of which Blinken describes as ‘non-starters’.

When asked, “Do you see any scenario in which more US service members become involved here?”, Blinken responded, “One of the things that we have been very clear about, besides the massive economic, financial consequences that would befall Russia if it further commenced aggression against Ukraine, is the ongoing continued buildup of defense capacity in Ukraine”.

Adding, “And, equally, continuing to build up NATO’s defensive capacities, including on the so-called eastern flank, the countries near Russia”, as reported by dailymail.co.uk.

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