Russia must pay for Ukraine rebuild, Blinken says | BBC News

Russia must pay for Ukraine rebuild, Blinken says | BBC News

well let’s talk now to Ukrainian politician in sson in keev and from Washington by Max Bergman who’s a senior fellow at American progress where he focuses on EUR Russia and US security cooperation uh in a sson let me start with you this is today the 811th day of this war Mr blinkin says that the US has been by the side of Ukraine since day one but was there anything in what he said today that gives you any hope any optimism that an end is in sight well uh the truth is that we are in a very difficult situation both on the front line but also on the other parts of the Ukrainian territory as well uh Ukrainian energy infrastructure has been destroyed and literally 10 minutes before I had to go live for this interview we got news that they might switch off electricity in Kev as well as in other parts of Ukraine because of the recent attacks on the energy infrastructure so it is a very difficult situation we’re in and of course this visit comes both as a sign of solidarity which is important on itself at this very difficult critical moment but we also hope that there were talks held behind the closed doors where more specifical uh issues of of help to Ukraine were being discussed how long this help will will last what will happen with the new package of the aid what will happen after the elections in the United States will the US help promote Ukraine entering NATO all those are very critical issues that need individual face-to-face discussion so we very much hope that there was some decision made of course they will not be announced right away but but the the fact that discussions are taking place are important but we really hope that decisions will be made sooner because unfortunately the the news that that you just uh were talking about the situation in harv in harv region uh it it happened because Aid was not delivered on time because Ukrainian Army couldn’t have prepared uh for that it still doesn’t have ammunition uh and that is why we’re losing ground in har so so the timing of the aid is as important as the amount of the aid and I think that that was made clear to to to secretary blinkin over here in K yes and Max Bergman that’s the issue isn’t it the money has been promised uh the message is that we are with you uh the detail though about where that Aid uh ends up and can it get to the areas that need it most urgently still ains outstanding particularly of course as Russia opens this new front once again around KH yeah that is I think of critical importance right now is the the speed of at which the US can can get the aid uh to Ukraine I I am actually fairly optimistic about uh the aid moving uh fairly quickly you know this had been stuck in front of Congress uh since uh October 1st uh so in the administration they had had a long time to prepare to identify the equipment that they were uh preparing to move and in fact sort of move uh some of that equipment um ahead of time ahead of passage of the supplemental so I think uh military equipment is flowing into Ukraine uh there’s going to be a challenge of quantity of how much can move and how quickly uh some of the equipment and some of the money for the equipment has to be built so that’s one big challenge is that a lot of the money uh was to ramp up uction of artillery now that would have been great if it passed last October and then we would have had another 6 to9 months of production uh that would have ramped up instead that got delayed so there there are some some kinks in in our system but there’s a lot of money that has been passed 60 billion plus for Ukraine that is an an exorbitant a huge amount of of material that uh will be provided to Ukraine uh and I think what will happen is that it’s going to be provided as fast as possible in part because there’s some uncertainty uh Post January 2025 over who will be in the White House and and how uh the US will support Ukraine going forward yes and that is an important Point here isn’t it as well um and there were two things in a sson that um already some criticism that they feel a little premature one of course talking about seizing Russian assets to pay for the rebuilding of Ukraine the question of course is ending that war first before the rebuilding can begin but also that talk of NATO membership once again um the Secretary of State saying that uh we are bringing Ukraine closer to and then into NATO uh that is the long-term security guarantee for Ukraine but it still feels a very long way off doesn’t it it does uh but we very much hope that progress will be made because uh we don’t want to leave under this constant threat of Russia taking us again after the period of of of this period of War ending so so we need long-term security guarantees and the single system that can provide us with long-term guarantees and NATO um NATO and and the membership in NATO aspiration for Ukraine to enter NATO are part of our constitution uh absolute majority of ukrainians support this because we understand that this is the single guarantee that we can get uh a single guarantee that that will actually save us in case of a new attack whenever it comes um this is people are very much hopeful for that uh we we see reluctance of of any specific dates or any specifics uh on on the NATO membership for Ukraine overall uh we don’t know to what extent this issue has been discussed with secretary blink today but I’m sure it was uh and we very much hope that there will be progress made I don’t want my son who is 11 now to fight in yet another war against Russia that is my my very strong personal feeling and then shared by millions of ukrainians over here yes um and Max bur brief if you will um once again that commitment uh from uh the Secretary of State to seize Russian assets he says to pay for the rebuilding of Ukraine when this war is over some would question why that has not been done already we know there are sanctions we know that there are penalties we know that assets have been seized but this seems to be a new development in what America wants to see yeah well I think part of the challenge of supporting Ukraine is that it’s going to be more costly that uh the United States and Europe have given away a lot of their uh old equ old military equipment and so the way to support Ukraine now is that we have to buy new we have to go to our Industries and buy that and that requires tens of billions of of dollars um uh annually if not more than 100 billion and so that requires a lot of money and there’s more than 300 billion in Frozen Russian assets sitting there so I think it makes uh reasonable sense to perhaps seize that money now uh and how we Finance support for Ukraine which is something we can definitely afford and should be uh doing but we have to start actually uh finding the money and putting real money on contract with defense firms to ramp up production and that’s one of the the big challenges and so I think I see identifying Frozen Russian assets uh the US I think is really trying to push Europe to to move on this because that’s where most of the money is Frozen is not in the United States but in but in Europe really good to talk to you both uh thank you for joining us on the context in a sofon there joining us from ke and Max Bergman in Washington DC thank you

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin must pay to rebuild what he has destroyed in Ukraine.

Speaking in Kyiv, Mr Blinken said Washington has the power to seize Russian assets in the US and will use them to help rebuild Ukraine.

Blinken’s visit comes as the country struggles to hold back a major Russian incursion near its second biggest city of Kharkiv.

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