State Department: Putin Knows He Is Losing

Vladimir Putin's nuclear saber-rattling, the sham referenda, his partial mobilization, and the broad – sometimes violent – crackdown on Russians exercising their universal rights "signal very clearly that he knows he is losing," State Department's spokesperson Ned Price said on Monday, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

Putin, Price said, is "on his back heels."

"And he’s making every attempt to intimidate those who would stand up to him. We – along with our allies and partners around the world – are not going to bow to intimidation," Price told the daily press briefing.

According to him, the so-called referenda Russia is holding right now in the sovereign Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Donetsk are "a total sham." The United States "will never recognize" seized Ukrainian territory as anything other than part of Ukraine. "We stand by Ukraine’s sovereignty."

Washington, he said, is increasing support to Ukrainian partners. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday announced an additional $457.5 million in civilian security assistance to enhance the efforts of Ukrainian law enforcement and criminal justice agencies to improve their operational capacity and "save lives as they continue to help defend the Ukrainian people, their freedom, and their democracy from the Kremlin’s brutal war of aggression," as he put it.

This new tranche of aid brings the total – brings the total the United States has committed to our Ukrainian law enforcement and criminal justice partners, since mid-December 2021, to more than $645 million.

The provision of additional protective equipment, medical supplies, and armored vehicles to the National Police of Ukraine and the State Border Guard Service has significantly reduced casualties for Ukrainian civilians and their defenders.

In addition to continuing and expanding our direct assistance to Ukrainian law enforcement, a portion of this new assistance will also continue U.S. support for the Ukrainian government’s efforts to document, investigate, and prosecute atrocities perpetrated by Russia’s forces, drawing on our longstanding relationship with the Ukrainian criminal justice agencies.

"The United States stands side by side with the Ukrainian people, and we remain committed to supporting a democratic, independent, and sovereign Ukraine," Price said.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.