Russia's war against Ukraine 'a strategic debacle': US

ISTANBUL

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that Russia's war against Ukraine has been a "strategic debacle" for Moscow.

"If you step back and look at it, this Russian aggression has been a strategic debacle for Russia," he said at the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh, adding that the Russian government has had to "make this great effort" to get around export controls and sanctions.

"It has reoriented its economy in a way that it is not sustainable," Blinken also said, further underlining that "in the aggregate, Russia is weaker economically and militarily."

"It is diplomatically weaker in much of the world, not all. But in much of it."

The top diplomat further added: "Ukrainians are united in ways that they have not been before."

China's support to Russia

Saying that the US has engaged with China to maintain stable relations, Blinken also criticized the country for its support to Russia in its war against Ukraine.

The US has "urged" China to not provide Russia with "arms, with weapons that would fuel the aggression," Blinken said, adding that "it’s fair to say that China has not directly supplied Russia with weapons, with missiles, with munitions."

"Iran is doing it. North Korea is doing it," he said, adding that the former is "the biggest source of instability in the Middle East."

"However, what China is doing, is providing invaluable support to Russia’s defense industrial base that’s helping Russia deal with the massive pressure that’s been exerted through sanctions, through export controls and other measures," Blinken said.

"If you look at what Russia has done over the last year, in terms of its production of munitions, missiles, tanks and armored vehicles, it has produced them at a faster pace than at any time in its modern history, including during the cold war as the Soviet Union," he said, adding that Russia is importing "machine tools, microelectronics, optics, mostly coming from China."

China's support to Russia is "enabling" it to rebuild a defense industrial base, Blinken also said, adding that European countries are "deeply concerned" with the base and think it will be used against them after "Ukraine is done."

"China is seeking better relations with countries in Europe, it is also fueling the greatest challenge to European security since the end of the Cold War. And as I shared with my Chinese colleagues, you can’t have it both ways,” the top diplomat concluded.