After nearly a decade of war in the region, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that Crimea is still part of Ukraine and will not be on the table as a potential means of achieving a peaceful drawdown of tensions with Russia.
Mr Blinken made the comments on Sunday during an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation following another week of warnings from the Biden administration regarding the threat of a Russian invasion in Ukraine.
On Friday, President Joe Biden himself addressed the nation and declared that US intelligence indicated that Russian President Vladimir Putin had decided to go forward with an invasion.
The secretary of state was asked about the issue on Sunday as Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan asked him about comments that Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, had made during his own previous interview with CBS News.
“When I spoke with the Russian ambassador, he referred to Crimea, that part of Ukraine that was annexed by Russia in 2014, as part of the Russian Federation. Will the US in any way consider recognising, ceding that territory or any territories in the east of Ukraine as a diplomatic way out of avoiding a larger war?” she asked.