U.S Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has labelled Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine as the most drastic threat to world order.
“Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine is the most immediate and acute threat to the international order enshrined in the UN charter and its core principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence,” he noted.
He made this assertion on Wednesday, September 13, 2023 as he shared the comments he delivered to the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies via the X social media platform.
“We find ourselves at another hinge point in history grappling with the fundamental question of strategy as Nitze defined it: “How do we get from where we are to where we want to be, without being struck by disaster along the way?”
“What we are experiencing now is more than a test of the post-cold war order. It’s the end of it. Decades of relative geopolitical stability have given way to an intensifying competition with authoritarian, revisionist powers”.
Antony Blinken
Blinken also warned that China presents the “the more significant long-term challenge, because it not only aspires to shape a new international order, it increasingly has the developing the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do just that.”
According to a statement issued by the U.S State department, Blinken noted in his speech that the biden administration is renewing and deepening alliances and partnerships, as well as forging new ones, which includes a NATO that is bigger, stronger, and a more united G7.
Blinken added that the U.S is weaving together alliances and partnerships in “innovative and mutually reinforcing ways across issues and continents.”
“It’s been on vivid display in the coalition we’ve built to support Ukraine and ensure Putin’s aggression remains a strategic failure,” Blinken noted.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials noted the impact of the ongoing war on the country.
In a post on the X social media platform, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence revealed that “more than 2,000 Shaheds have been launched against Ukraine” since September 13 last year.
According to officials in Kyiv, September 13, 2023 was the first time “Russians first used Iranian drones to attack the country.”
“Overnight, Russian terrorists used Shahed drones to attack Odesa region once again,” the Defence Ministry added.
In addition, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Oleksandr Kubrakov, disclosed that more than 100 port infrastructure facilities have been damaged in Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports since July 18, 20223.
“As a result of strikes on the ports of the Danube cluster and the blocking of seaports, grain exports to Asia, Africa and Europe were reduced by almost 3 million tons per month,’ Kubrakov noted on Facebook.
Shoigu Says Russia Has ‘No Other Options’ But To Win In Ukraine
Also on Wednesday, Russian Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu, stated that Russia will ultimately win in its war in Ukraine.
Responding to a reporter who asked if Russia would win, Shoigu said, “We have no other options.”
He disclosed that Russian forces were maintaining “active defence” in the face of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
Shoigu said the autumn campaign was now under way and admitted that the situation on the front was difficult in some places.
“But I can say that the lads and the Commander are performing confidently, and reliably defending what we need to defend at the moment – those places, obviously, where the Ukrainian armed forces are trying to break through.”
Sergei Shoigu
The main task was to knock out enemy weaponry, he added.
Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory after more than 18 months of war, but has been forced to pull back from large areas it seized in its initial invasion near the capital Kyiv and in the south and east.
Ukraine launched a long-anticipated counteroffensive in June that has recaptured more than a dozen villages but has been complicated by vast minefields and heavily entrenched Russian forces.
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