On Wednesday, The U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected all de-escalation options proposed by the U.S.A. and instead intensified his military campaign, reports The Voice of America.
"We tried to offer de-escalation options to the President, and he is the only one who could decide to use them. Instead, he accelerated at every opportunity, continuing on his horrible way," Blinken said at his joint press conference with the British Foreign Minister Liz Truss.
Now he has a clear plan of using force in Ukraine, but with what goal, asked Blinken.
He added that Ukrainians would not approve of any "puppet regime" that Putin could use to replace the lawful government. If he leaves the troops in Ukraine and tries to install a puppet government, the struggle will be long, bloody and exhausting.
Earlier, U.S. military officials confirmed that the goal of the Russian invasion was to "behead" the Ukrainian government.
There was information that the Kremlin prepares a special operation to declare Victor Yanukovich as the "President of Ukraine," as he supposedly made a statement from the Belarusian territory. Before the war, the British Foreign Ministry informed that Russia was considering a former opposition member of the Ukrainian Parliament, Evgen Murayev, as a possible "Ukrainian President."
On February 24, Putin launched a terrestrial, naval and aerial attack on Ukraine. The war rapidly led Russia to economic isolation and international condemnation. The U.S. banned Russian oil imports, and many western companies exited the Russian market.
The occupying Russian forces control the territory along the North-Eastern border of Ukraine, in the East and the South-East of the country. There is ongoing combat around Kyiv, while Kharkiv, the second biggest city, suffers from missile attacks and shelling. Today, the Russian army bombarded the city of Mariupol, destroying a maternity ward and children's hospital.