Washington supplied weapons to kyiv “well before” conflict broke out, admits Blinken – RT in French

American Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted, in an interview with the New York Times and published on January 4, that Washington had started arming kyiv before the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The diplomat also prided himself on having “worked very hard” to prevent the outbreak of this war.

The United States began, “well before” the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, to supply kyiv with weapons, confided American Secretary of State Antony Blinken in an interview with New York Times (NYT) published this January 4.

“Well before Russian aggression, in September and again in December, we quietly supplied numerous weapons to Ukraine so that it had what it needed to defend itself, including Stingers and Javelins which made it possible to “to stop Russia from taking kyiv, crushing the country, erasing it from the map, and pushing the Russians back,” he said.

He also prided himself on having “worked very hard”, particularly with Russia, in order to prevent this conflict. “We have demonstrated extraordinary diplomacy by bringing together and holding together more than 50 countries, not only in Europe, but well beyond, to support Ukraine,” he also welcomed.

“Since then, if there had been any opportunity to engage diplomatically in a way that could have ended the war on just and lasting terms, we would have been the first to seize it,” he said. he again declared, assuring that he had “seen no sign that Russia was really willing to engage”.

In August 2023, the Russian Investigative Committee declared that Ukraine had received weapons and ammunition, before the Russian offensive, from 20 states, 16 of which are NATO members. Deliveries which, according to the agency, began in 2014.

More than 160 billion euros in military aid in almost three years

According to the count by the German think tank Kiel Institute, Ukraine benefited between the end of January 2022 and the end of October 2024 from 163.37 billion euros in military aid, including 60 billion provided by the United States alone. Russian officials have repeatedly stated that sending weapons to Ukraine would not reduce Russia’s resolve or change the course of the conflict.

In an interview given to Newsweek On October 7, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that “political, military and financial support for kyiv for the war to continue” amounted to “playing with fire” and could have “dangerous consequences.”

The Russian foreign minister also said that Moscow has been trying to “extinguish this crisis for more than a decade.” “Every time we put on paper agreements that suit everyone, kyiv and its masters backtrack,” he added.

Sergei Lavrov thus mentioned the transition agreement, signed on February 21, 2014 between the opposition and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the German, French and Polish Ministers of Foreign Affairs, but “trampled on by the opposition” the next day by the Maidan coup, as well as the Minsk agreements “sabotaged for seven years”.

“The Ukrainian, German and French leaders, who had signed the document, later boasted of having never had the intention of respecting it,” he insisted on this point. The Russian minister also mentioned the agreement “initialled in Istanbul at the end of March 2022” and “never signed by Zelensky, at the insistence of his Western superiors, in particular the British Prime Minister at the time [Boris Johnson]”.