Yagidne, Ukraine, Sept 7 (AFP\/APP): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised what he called Ukraine’s “extraordinary resilience” against Russian aggression during a visit to the Chernigiv region Thursday as he concluded a surprise two-day trip.<\/p>\n
A day after talks with the Ukrainian leadership in Kyiv, Blinken went to see a school basement in Yagidne, where Russian troops kept dozens of villagers including elderly people and children captive.<\/p>\n
“We’ve said, many of us, looking at this, hearing the stories, this is the 21st century. This wasn’t supposed to happen again,” Blinken said.<\/p>\n
“This is just one building,” he said, but “this is a story we’ve seen again and again and again.”<\/p>\n
“But we are also seeing something else that’s incredibly powerful, and that is the extraordinary resilience of the Ukrainian people.”<\/p>\n
Russian forces seized parts of Chernigiv region, including Yagidne, soon after invading Ukraine in February 2022.<\/p>\n
They withdrew after about a month, and Yagidne was recaptured by Ukrainian forces on March 30, 2022, but the Russian army left towns destroyed and land heavily mined.<\/p>\n
Blinken said up to a third of Ukraine’s territory was now dealing with mines or unexploded ordnance. <\/p>\n
“But Ukrainians are coming together to get rid of the ordnance, to get rid of the mines, and to literally recover the land,” Blinken said. <\/p>\n
Blinken later visited a hydroelectric dam alongside Prime Minister Denys Shmygal. Blinken heard from representatives of the state hydro power company that it has suffered $1.5 billion in losses since the start of the war.<\/p>\n
– Show of support – <\/p>\n
Blinken on Wednesday met with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv where he also went to a McDonald’s alongside Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, hoping to highlight US companies’ work to keep operating in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
He announced $1 billion in new US support for Ukraine, hoping to demonstrate commitment by President Joe Biden at a time that some parts of the rival Republican Party are questioning the level of assistance.<\/p>\n
As he left Ukraine, Blinken denounced Russia’s plans to conduct “sham elections” on Sunday in areas of Ukraine occupied by Moscow.<\/p>\n
Russia, which controls less than 20 percent of Ukrainian territory including Crimea, which it seized in 2014, is organizing what it calls voting for local officials and regional deputies.<\/p>\n
The polls would take place a year after Russian authorities conducted widely criticized referendums that led President Vladimir Putin to declare the annexation by Moscow of four areas of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
“The Kremlin hopes these pre-determined, fabricated results will strengthen Russia’s illegitimate claims to the parts of Ukraine it occupies, but this is nothing more than a propaganda exercise,” Blinken said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Saying the vote violated the UN Charter’s principle of state sovereignty, Blinken threatened that the United States would impose sanctions on anyone assisting the polls, including self-styled international observers.<\/p>\n
Besides Russia, only North Korea has accepted the results of last year’s referendums. Ukrainian officials say some residents were coerced to vote and that other voters were bused in.<\/p>\n
Blinken is expected to head after Ukraine to New Delhi, where he will join President Joe Biden at a summit of the Group of 20 major economies. <\/p>\n
Putin, who faces an international arrest warrant related to the war, is not attending, although India has maintained cordial relations with Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yagidne, Ukraine, Sept 7 (AFP\/APP): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised what he called Ukraine’s “extraordinary resilience” against Russian aggression during a visit to the Chernigiv region Thursday as he concluded a surprise two-day trip. A day after talks with the Ukrainian leadership in […]<\/p>\n
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