The United States wants to see the Russian military “weakened” amid the invasion of Ukraine, said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday as he and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with officials in Europe.
“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” Austin told reporters, according to a transcript.
His remarks on Monday are perhaps the most explicit yet from a White House official on the Biden administration’s goals in the conflict, representing a sharpening of rhetoric toward the Russian government as the conflict enters its third month. Austin made the comments while speaking with Blinken at a press conference in Poland, a day after the pair visited Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on providing more military assistance.
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