US ready to accept neutral Ukraine
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate that neutrality or NATO is Kiev’s choice to make
US ready to accept neutral Ukraine
Washington would not oppose Ukraine declaring itself a non-aligned, neutral country, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s testimony in the Senate on Tuesday. The US seeks to arm Ukraine to strengthen its hand at the negotiating table, but can’t be “more Ukrainian than the Ukrainians” and the ultimate decision will be up to Kiev, Blinken said.
The crisis in Ukraine, which Blinken visited over the weekend with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, dominated Tuesday’s hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the State Department’s 2023 budget.
At one point, Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) voiced his concern that Ukrainians were “being pushed and goaded by half the members of the Senate who want them in NATO,” and that they might have otherwise agreed to neutrality, as Moscow had asked.
Asked by Paul whether the US would accept Ukraine becoming a neutral state and not a NATO member, Blinken implied that Washington just might.
“We, senator, are not going to be more Ukrainian than the Ukrainians. These are decisions for them to make,” he told Paul. The purpose of the current US military aid to Ukraine is to give Kiev the ability to “repel the Russian aggression” and “strengthen their hand at an eventual negotiating table,” Blinken added.
https://www.rt.com/russia/554572-blinken-ukraine-neutral/
