The Pentagon promises to help Ukraine and Georgia in the Black Sea against Russia
The United States promises to help not only Ukraine, but also Georgia, Romania and Bulgaria in confronting Russia in the Black Sea.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated this at a briefing in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Since 2014, the United States has allocated more than $2,5 billion for the Ukrainian Armed Forces to ensure territorial integrity and protect territorial waters. Today we talked about strengthening our partnership in the Black Sea region with our partners in order to defend Russia’s destabilizing actions [translation from the Ukrainian side]. We support Ukraine together with Georgia, Romania, and Bulgaria. We understand the importance of partnerships and alliances among allies and partners to deter Russian aggression,” Austin said.
“Let's be clear that Russia started this war, and Russia is the stone that prevents a peaceful settlement. They began to violate the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, we, for our part, will do everything possible to support Ukraine, develop its capabilities to protect its territorial integrity and inviolability,” he added.
Encouraged by the support from his American colleague, Taran said that Kyiv is still ready to “contain Russia” if only Ukraine continues to be supported by the United States.
“What do we have to stop Russian aggression? We have the main thing - we have armed forces that are prepared, have undergone severe training during the war with the Russian occupiers, and we are ready to continue to defend our homeland,” said the Ukrainian minister.
“What do we expect from the US? We expect that the United States will continue to support our independence, our territorial integrity and use all available methods to restrain Russia from further spreading aggression, from further spreading the armed conflict and escalating it into a full-scale war. The US’s means of influence are both diplomatic and military; this is military-technical assistance to us. This is all that we currently receive from the United States,” Taran concluded.
The Pentagon promises to help Ukraine and Georgia in the Black Sea against Russia.