In visit to Ukraine border, Blinken pledges increased support, but not fighter jets

Blinken spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba at the border crossing, where he cited a surge in outside support to Ukraine, including a wave of international sanctions, humanitarian aid, and an increasing flow of weaponry. He said those steps were already having a devastating effect on Russia.

“That pressure too will not only continue — it will grow until this war, this war of choice, is brought to an end,” he said.

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But Blinken, on the second day of a European tour designed to illustrate Western unity in the face of President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, stopped short of promising the additional military support that Kuleba and others in the Kyiv government have said they urgently need — specifically, fighter aircraft and the establishment of a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Kuleba thanked Blinken for coming to the border, and said that Ukraine would ultimately prevail over Russia.

“The question is the price, the price of our victory and if our partners continue … to provide us with necessary weapons, the price will be lower,” he said.

Kuleba said antitank weapons and stinger surface-to-air missiles had been extremely helpful in facing the Kremlin’s attack so far.

Russian forces have advanced slowly toward the capital Kyiv since beginning their assault last month, but have made more progress in southern and eastern Ukraine. But Kuleba, like other top officials in the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky, said more was needed to help Ukraine fend off attacks from the air, including fighter jets and air defense systems.

“If we lose the skies, there will be much, much more blood on the ground, and that will be the blood of civilians,” he said.

Kuleba referenced comments from NATO officials in Brussels a day earlier — where Blinken met on Friday with European leaders — ruling out the establishment of a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which alliance officials said would require NATO aircraft to shoot down Russian jets and could thus ignite a NATO-Russia war.

Kuleba said that position was “a sign of weakness” of the Western alliance. “It’s Ukrainians, it’s the people of Ukraine, who will pay the price for the reluctance of NATO to act,” he said.

Zelensky made a similar appeal to U.S. lawmakers during a video call on Saturday. Speaking after the call, lawmakers said the Ukrainian leader had asked that a no-fly zone be established and that Poland and Romania, both NATO members, be permitted to transfer Soviet-era aircraft to Ukraine.

Putin warned on Saturday that he would view anyone who attempted to create a no-fly zone “as participants of the military conflict.”

Blinken said the U.S. government was “looking at everything” but did not commit to providing aircraft.

“Putin has made a terrible, terrible, terrible mistake in many ways. But it starts with the proposition that somehow Ukraine doesn’t exist as an independent country,” Blinken said. “What Ukrainians are showing every single day is, of course, exactly the opposite. And ultimately, their strength, their resolve, their determination, backed by the United States, in fact by the world, is going to prevail.”

Referencing the price of victory that Kuleba mentioned, Blinken said the United States wanted “to do everything we can to make sure that price is as low as possible and that this happens as quickly as possible, but we’re in it with Ukraine one way or another.”

During his border visit, Blinken also met with a delegation of U.S. lawmakers who traveled to the area, including Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Earlier in the day, Blinken met with Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, thanking his country for welcoming hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine and for pledging to increase defense spending. The United States has doubled the number of troops it has stationed in Poland since the end of January.

Kuleba said his government would continue to hold talks with Russia, even though several rounds conducted since the beginning of hostilities had failed to yield a deal to end the conflict. He noted that wars typically end via negotiations.

“So we have to continue talking, but we are not going to these talks to accept Russian ultimatums,” he said.