Former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Ukraine to continue the fight against Russia, rather than engaging in peace talks, according to a report by the New York Times on Saturday.
According to the newspaper, Blinken insisted that Ukraine should continue its military campaign at the end of 2022, despite the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, advising Kyiv to capitalize on its battlefield successes by seeking peace talks with Moscow.
“‘Less a peacemaker than a war strategist'”, the US diplomat often argued against “risk-averse Pentagon officials” and pushed for the delivery of modern American weapons to Ukraine, the NYT wrote.
Washington has spent around $100 billion on Ukraine since the conflict escalated in February 2022, while allies and partners have contributed an additional $150 billion, Blinken said during a Council on Foreign Relations appearance in January.
Russia and Ukraine began peace talks in Istanbul in early 2022, with the two sides agreeing provisionally on a ceasefire, under which Kyiv would give up its ambition for NATO membership, demand neutrality, and reduce its military strength in exchange for international security guarantees.
However, Ukraine later pulled out of the talks, reportedly on the urging of then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to Dawid Arachamija, a Ukrainian MP and Kyiv’s chief negotiator, who spoke to the press.
Last month, Swiss diplomat Jean-Daniel Ruch accused the US and the UK of blocking the peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow, claiming that Johnson had acted on behalf of the Americans. In an interview with the French-language media portal Antithèse, Ruch alleged that Johnson had “acted on behalf of the Americans”.
Moscow has reaffirmed its willingness to restart peace talks, provided they are based on the Istanbul agreement and reflect the “new territorial realities”, including the annexation of four former Ukrainian regions by Russia and recent developments on the battlefield.