Blinken Arrives in Ukraine With $1B Military Aid Package Expected
The Facts
As Ukraine's counteroffensive entered into its fourth month, US Sec. of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday.
During the two-day visit, Blinken is scheduled to meet Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy and foreign minister Dmytro Kuelba, alongside other high-ranking officials and civil society leaders. Blinken is also set to announce a new $1B military aid package, according to a US State Dept. official.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
Although Ukrainian progress has been slow, they are finally making important gains and are going in the right direction. War does not operate in a linear fashion — defenders may be able to hold for a long time, but when the levee breaks, attackers can make swift progress. There's no reason to believe that Ukraine can't do the same.
Establishment-critical narrative
While Ukraine is making incremental gains, it is quite clear that it will not succeed in pushing Russia out of all of the four territories it's claimed to have annexed, let alone Crimea which was taken in 2014. Now is the time to formulate an achievable endgame to the war — one that also takes into consideration Russia's point of view, to avoid the conflict from erupting once again.
