USA (bbabo.net), - US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, speaking of US support for Kiev, said that the States are focused on helping Ukraine return the territories occupied by Russia since February 24 - from the start of a special military operation.

“Our focus is to continue the current actions to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to defend … the return of territory that has been occupied since February 24,” Blinken told the Wall Street Journal conference.

The Secretary of State also noted that in addition to military support, Kyiv also needs economic and humanitarian assistance.

Blinken at the same time avoided a direct answer to the question of whether the Ukrainians would be able to “return Crimea”, saying that the Ukrainians themselves decide “where they want to go and when”, but “with our support and the support of a dozen countries around the world.”

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, said in November that the success of Ukrainian troops in Crimea was hardly possible "in the near future." However, as the Economist reported in November. political leaders in Kyiv “privately acknowledge” the difficulty of returning Donbas and Crimea to Ukrainian control. The magazine believes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "may be driving himself into a corner" with statements about the return of Crimea to Ukrainian control. Crimea was reunited with Russia long before February 24, in the spring of 2014.

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