This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia “failed a long time ago” in what it sought to achieve in its war against Ukraine and that Kyiv’s current counteroffensive has retaken substantial territory initially seized by Moscow, but he also warned of a long, “very hard fight” in the coming months.
“The objective was to erase Ukraine from the map, to eliminate its independence, its sovereignty, to subsume it into Russia. That failed a long time ago,” Blinken told CNN in an interview broadcast on July 23.
“Unlike the Russians, Ukrainians are fighting for their land, for their future, for their country, for their freedom,” Blinken said.
But he cautioned that the war — now more than 500 days old — would continue for at least “several months.”
Blinken said Ukraine has seen success in its counteroffensive, but he cautioned that progress going forward would not be easy.
“[Ukraine has] already taken back about 50 percent of what was initially seized,” Blinken claimed, without being specific. “These are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive. It is tough.
“It will not play out over the next week or two. We’re still looking, I think, at several months.”
Many Western observers had initially expressed optimism that Kyiv’s long-awaited counteroffensive could quickly clear Russian forces from occupied regions in the east and south of the country, but many have suggested that the going has been tougher than hoped.
In late June, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said progress against Russian forces was “slower than desired” but that Kyiv would not be pressured into speeding up its actions.
The comments come as fighting continues to rage in eastern and southern Ukraine, including reports of heightened attacks on civilian sites by Russian forces.
Ukrainian officials on July 23 said one person was killed and 22 wounded, including four children, in a fresh Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa.
Russia’s military has launched strikes on the port city and other Ukrainian food export facilities over the past week after the Kremlin withdrew from a UN-brokered sea corridor agreement that allowed for the safe shipment of Ukrainian grain.
Kyiv has accused Moscow of targeting grain supplies and infrastructure vital to the deal.
“Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral…. There can be no excuse for Russian evil. As always, this evil will lose. And there will definitely be a retaliation to Russian terrorists for Odesa. They will feel this retaliation,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Twitter after the fresh strike on Odesa.
Zelenskiy wrote on his Telegram channel on July 23 that Ukraine needs a full-fledged air shield to defeat Russian missile strikes.
“We have already shown that we can shoot down even those Russian missiles that terrorists especially boasted about. Thanks to the help of partners and air-defense systems provided to Ukraine, our sky defenders have saved thousands of lives,” Zelenskiy wrote.
“But for our entire territory, for all our cities and communities, we need more air-defense systems. The world should not get used to Russian terror — it is necessary to defeat terror. And it is possible,” Zelenskiy wrote.
