The US wants the conflict in Ukraine to leave Russia too “weakened” to “invade” a neighboring state, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on Monday, the day after traveling to Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and members of his cabinet.
Asked how he would define “America’s goals for success” in Ukraine, Austin stated Washington wants it to “remain a sovereign territory, a democratic country, able to protect its sovereign territory.” He then added that the US would want to see Russia “weakened” by the ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
“It has already lost a lot of military capability and a lot of its troops,” Austin claimed, explaining that Washington “want[s] to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capacity.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed Austin’s sentiments, declaring that Moscow had already “failed” in its supposed objective “to totally subjugate Ukraine, to take away its sovereignty, to take away its independence.” However, Russia has not expressed a desire to occupy or “subjugate” Ukraine militarily or otherwise.