Austin defends US support for Ukraine, “looks forward” to welcoming Sweden and Finland to NATO
A grandmother and her grandson hug each other as they meet at the railway station in Kherson, southern Ukraine, on Saturday. About 200 people arrived in Kherson by train for the first time since February 24 when Ukraine resumed rail service between the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and the recently recaptured city in the south. Photo by Oleg Petrasyuk/EPA-EFE
Nov. 20 (UPI) — Lloyd Austin has defended continued US support for Ukraine amid the country’s war with Russia, which he called a direct threat to European security and a challenge to NATO allies.
Austin, Secretary of Defense, made his remarks during a speech at the Halifax International Security Forum i Nova Scotia on Saturday ahead of a trip to Indonesia and Cambodia to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Defense Minister Meeting Plus.
The Pentagon chief’s comments came as he called China and the war in Ukraine twin threats to the United States and the “international rules-based system that has preserved peace since the end of World War II.”
“Keeping the international system open and secure is at the heart of everything we do,” he said. “But today the stable, open system is under threat – and not just from the generational challenge in the People’s Republic of China, but from a tragic, devastating war in the heart of Europe.”
Austin added that Russia’s “deliberate cruelty” has also served as an attack on the rules of modern warfare that has left Europe grappling with “the instability, the destruction, the human misery, the flood of refugees and the other dangers of an even more ruthless and aggressive Russia.”
He said the US has since stationed permanent forces on NATO’s eastern flank in Poland and “looks forward to welcoming Finland and Sweden, two very capable democracies, to NATO’s ranks.”
“Make no mistake: We will not be dragged into Putin’s election war, but we will stand by Ukraine as it struggles to defend itself,” Austin said. “We will defend every inch of NATO territory.”
Austin concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown the world a preview of a “possible world of tyranny and chaos.”
“It is an invitation to an increasingly insecure world haunted by the shadow of nuclear proliferation,” Austin said.
Meanwhile, the British Ministry of Defense — which has provided daily intelligence updates throughout the war — said in a statement Sunday that Russia’s recent withdrawal from west of the Kherson “was conducted in relatively good order compared to previous major Russian retreats during the war.”
“During the retreat, vehicle losses were likely in the tens rather than hundreds, while much equipment left behind was successfully destroyed by Russian forces to deny Ukraine it,” the British Ministry of Defense said.
“This relative success is likely due in part to a more effective, single operational command under General Sergei Surovikin. But the force remains fractured by poor junior and mid-level leadership and a culture of cover-up.”
The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, DC, said in an analysisOn Saturday, Russian forces will begin reinforcing their positions in the occupied Luhansk, Donetsk and eastern Zaporizhzhia oblasts with personnel from Kherson.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Last Saturday that his country received an “extremely important visit” from Britain’s new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
“Thank you, Rishi, Mr. Prime Minister, for your willingness to defend freedom even more strongly with us,” Zelensky said. “We also have some very necessary decisions – we agreed on them today.”
This is stated by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency in a statement On Sunday, “powerful explosions” were reported at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Saturday as Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the renewed shelling.
“The news from our team yesterday and this morning is extremely disturbing. Explosions occurred at the site of this large nuclear power plant, which is completely unacceptable,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in the statement.
“Whoever is behind this needs to stop immediately. As I’ve said many times before, you’re playing with fire!”
Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom said in a Telegram post on Sunday that Russian shelling had continued “all morning” and that at least 12 hits were recorded, while Rosenergoatom, Russia’s nuclear power agency, accused Ukraine of continuing the shelling.