Antony Blinken says an independent Ukraine will be around 'a lot longer' than Putin

(Image credit: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

published 16 March 2022

Secretary of State Antony Blinken used an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday to remind Russian President Vladimir Putin of his mortality.

Putin decided to invade Ukraine because he wants to deny the country its "independent existence," Blinken said, but "there's going to be a Ukraine, an independent Ukraine, a lot longer than there's going to be a Vladimir Putin. One way or the other, Ukraine will be there and at some point Putin won't."

The United States will continue to provide "extraordinary" support to Ukraine, Blinken said, with the aim of protecting civilian life. "The real question is how much death and destruction is wrought by Russia's aggression in the meantime, and that's what we're working as hard as we can to limit, to stop, to put an end to the war of choice that Russia is committing," he added. "We're doing that through the support we're providing Ukraine every single day. We're doing that by the pressure we're exerting against Russia every single day."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.