U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown “no interest” in engaging in “meaningful diplomacy” with Ukraine, after eight months of bloody war, abcnews.go writes.
“Our purpose is simple. It’s to stand with the Ukrainians, to make sure that their country remains independent … and, ultimately, to have the strongest possible hand at a negotiating if one emerges, because President Zelenskyy has said himself — at some point, this is going to end through diplomacy,” Blinken told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in a sit-down interview airing Thursday on “Good Morning America.”
Stephanopoulos pressed Blinken on that point, noting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has “also said he’s not going to negotiate with Vladimir Putin, only with the next Russian president.”
“Well, he’s been clear that diplomacy is going to have to bring this to an end at some point,” Blinken responded. “But what we’ve seen thus far is no interest on the part of Putin in meaningful diplomacy.”
When asked whether he thinks Putin is “still rational,” Blinken said: “It’s hard to put yourself in someone else’s mind. I think he’s rational, but the decisions he’s making — or maybe better put, his objectives — are not rational.”
