Blinken fears Putin’s reaction to the invasion of Crimea

A possible request by Ukraine to militarily liberate Crimea annexed by Russia could become a “red line” for Russian President Vladimir Putin and lead to even more powerful strikes on Ukraine than now. This opinion – according to the sources of the publication Politico – was expressed by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken during a video conference with a group of experts.

As Politico writes, one of the participants in the private conversation asked the Secretary of State whether the United States intends to actively help Ukraine in the campaign to return Crimea, annexed by Russia almost nine years ago, under control. The State Secretary, as reported, replied that the United States is not pushing Ukraine to attack Crimea, and is focused on providing assistance to it in the battles in the east of the country. At the same time, Blinken emphasized that only the authorities of Ukraine should decide whether to attack Crimea.

As noted by some participants of the conversation polled by Politico, it seemed that Blinken himself did not consider such an attack reasonable at the moment. Others, however, noted that the Secretary of State rather meant that the decision about him should not be made by Washington.

Earlier, the American mass media quoted unnamed representatives of the Pentagon who stated that the USA doubts Ukraine’s ability to retake Crimea in the near future. The head of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milly, said that it would be “very difficult” to liberate the entire territory of Ukraine by military means – although not impossible.

At the same time, a number of experts believe that a possible attack by Ukraine will be focused not on attempts to break into Crimea itself, but on its isolation, that is, on the expulsion of Russian troops from the territories of Zaporozhye and Kherson regions and the destruction of the so-called “land bridge” to Crimea.

Officially, Blinken did not comment on the Politico publication.

A number of Russian representatives previously stated that in the event of Ukraine’s invasion of Crimea, Moscow may resort to harsh measures – hints were also given about the possibility of using nuclear weapons.

Ukraine, like almost all countries of the world, did not recognize the annexation of Crimea in 2014, however, before the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion in 2022, the country’s authorities talked about the desire to return the peninsula peacefully. Now in Kiev they declare their readiness to liberate him by force of arms.