State Department: We Want Peace, Not a Pause

The State Department said on Tuesday that Washington is not "enabling" or "encouraging Ukraine to strike beyond its borders" with lethal aid, after the Kremlin blamed several recent attacks against its military infrastructure on Ukraine, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"We are providing Ukraine with what it needs to use on its sovereign territory, on Ukrainian soil, to take on Russian aggressors, Russian aggressors that have crossed over the border," spokesperson Ned Price told a daily press briefing.

Washington has not "provided Ukraine with weapons that it is to use inside of Russia," according to Price. "We have been very clear that these are defensive supplies," according to Price.

Asked by TURAN's Washington correspondent about increasingly loud calls for off-ramps for Russia, Price echoed Secretary Antony Blinken's early warnings against "phony" off-ramps.

"The Ukrainians want peace. The transatlantic community wants peace. What we don't want is a pause." he said.

"... Because if we have a pause instead of peace, we know that President Putin will use that pause to retool, to refit, to regroup, and to – in all likelihood, go back into Ukraine with renewed vengeance. And that is not in the interests of a just peace. It is certainly not in the interests of a durable peace," he added.

Price then went on to add, "We are, as are the Ukrainians, committed to doing everything we can to support Ukraine as it attempts to end this aggression. But if this aggression is going to be ended in a way that is durable, it has to be just. And in order for it to be just, it in some ways also has to be durable."

Even as President Zelenskyy outlines his vision for a just peace, "we're seeing missiles, bombs, mortars, shells – continue to rain down on Ukraine," Price emphasized.

Washington has two primary criteria in mind, as Price puts it:  "1) s what the Ukrainians need... and 2) what we're able to get to Ukraine what we can get there within days. And that equipment is very much on the way. So that's our focus now."

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.