US will support Ukraine against Russian aggression ‘as long as it takes,’ US State Dept. spokesperson says

Ned Price: We have made very clear that we are going to be with Ukraine for as long as it takes. We have had a tremendous partner in the US Congress. We’re able to do much of this because of the funding, the emergency supplemental funding that Congress put forward earlier this year. It was $40 billion.

It’s not a fair critique, because the United States is the world’s humanitarian leader. We’ve spoken of the aid and assistance we provided to Ukraine, but we have done that across continents, across countries, the world over. We have announced billions of dollars for Africa, for other parts of the world.

Our long-term goal is simple. It is to see that Ukraine remains independent, to see it remain sovereign, to see it remain democratic, but with the means to defend itself against any further aggression. We are going to stick by Ukraine until Russia is prepared to negotiate.

We will be there with Ukraine for as long as it takes.

Everything we have provided Ukraine to date has been for their self-defense. Ukraine has every right to use force on its own territory. We have provided them with the weapons and the systems they need, not only to defend themselves, their civilian population, their infrastructure against this Russian brutality, but to take aim at Russian aggressors on sovereign Ukrainian territory, who are carrying out this war.

What is OK with us and what we have provided are systems for Ukraine to use to defend itself against Russian territory. We’ve been clear that the weapons we’ve provided, the systems we’ve provided, are for use on sovereign Ukrainian territory. I’m just not going to entertain hypotheticals that go beyond that.

We have been working intensively with our European allies, but also partners around the world to do a couple of things. One is near-term, to see to it that there is adequate global energy supply, including shifting supply of LNG, for example, from the Indo-Pacific to Europe, ahead of this winter. We have also tapped into our Strategic Petroleum Reserve at an unprecedented level. Countries around the world are doing the same to see to it that we can stabilize the global energy supply.

Well, we are concerned and we’re monitoring it very closely. We know that in combat operations, Russians staging their forces at this nuclear power plant — it is the height of irresponsibility. What we’re calling for is an end to combat operations, to Russia’s combat operations in and around the nuclear plant. We’re calling, with our international partners, for a demilitarized zone. And we’re also calling for access on the part of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] to this nuclear facility as soon as possible. We’ve heard from the Russians that they expect the IAEA could visit as soon as next month. That is too long. This needs to happen as soon as possible.

Well, it is Ukraine’s plant.

This is a plant that is on sovereign Ukrainian territory. It is our position that Russia should vacate its positions at the plant that day, that the IAEA should have access to this plant. Russia has no right to anything that is on sovereign Ukrainian territory.

Well, ultimately, these are going to be decisions that our Ukrainian partners will have to make for themselves. It is our charge, in the meantime — and by “our,” I mean the collective “we,” the United States and our partners and allies around the world — to provide Ukraine with what they need to strengthen their hand on the battlefield, knowing that if they are stronger on the battlefield, they will be ultimately stronger at any negotiating table that’s to emerge.

Well, again, these are all decisions that President Zelenskiy and his government, and ultimately the Ukrainian people, will have to make. We don’t dictate targets. We don’t dictate tactics. But every inch of land that Russia has seized or attempted to seize legitimately belongs to Ukraine.

Again, we don’t dictate targets. We don’t dictate tactics. We provide our Ukrainian partners with what they need for self-defense. But Crimea is Ukraine.

I am sure we will have a helping role to play, an assisting role to play, when it comes to any diplomacy that leads to an endgame when it comes to Russia’s war against Ukraine. The challenge is that we have a willing Ukrainian partner, but there is no Russian counterpart to meet them at the negotiating table. So, there is not a true role for the United States to play at this time beyond providing Ukraine with what it needs to strengthen its hand on the battlefield, which will, in turn, strengthen its hand on any negotiating table that emerges.

Well, we’re defending the principle that might doesn’t make right, that big countries can’t bully small countries, that borders can’t be redrawn by force and that a country’s foreign policy can be dictated only by the sovereign decisions of a sovereign government and an independent people. That is something that Russia is trying to challenge. It’s also something, by the way, that other countries around the world are trying to challenge. And there’s one particularly large country, economically powerful country halfway around the world in the Indo-Pacific, that would like to see an opening to challenge these very principles. That’s why it’s so important that we do, and the international community does, everything we can to preserve, defend and reinforce these rules.