The Hill: The US does not publicly support Kyiv's claims to Crimea in order to have bait for Moscow
The ambiguous position of the Joe Biden administration regarding Kyiv’s claims to Crimea is connected only with the US attempts to bring Russia to the negotiating table.
The American conservative publication The Hill wrote about this on March 6, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The Biden administration is keeping the door open when it comes to US support for the return of Russian-occupied Crimea to Ukraine, the publication notes. White House officials have repeatedly dodged questions about whether Washington would support Kyiv's efforts to reclaim the annexed peninsula, postponing the issue until later.
While some lawmakers have called on the administration to make its position clearer, experts say the strategy of ambiguity is a way for the United States to hedge its bets on a disputed piece of land that could help bring Russia to the negotiating table to end the war.
“They may believe that holding Crimea under threat in order to pressure the Russians to come to the negotiating table makes sense,” Chris Chivvis, a former US national intelligence officer in Europe and current director of the US Statecraft Program, told the publication. at the Carnegie Endowment.
While US officials say Washington will support Ukraine for as long as it takes them to win the war, they are reluctant to fully support Kyiv's ambitions in Crimea, The Hill writes. This is partly due to the supply of heavy weapons - long-range missiles, tanks and aircraft - that will likely be needed to mount a successful offensive to regain control of Crimea.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan last month dodged questions about whether the Biden administration would support Ukraine's goal of returning Crimea.
"What's critical now is that they need to take back the areas in the south and east that they're currently focused on, and we need to give them the tools to do that," Sullivan said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
“The issue of Crimea and the issue of what will happen in the future is what we will come to,” Sullivan added.
The Pentagon also addressed the issue in January 2023, when deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said the United States has long held the position that Crimea is part of Ukraine and supports "the Ukrainians reclaiming their territory by any means available." But she declined to say whether the U.S. military approved such a move specifically regarding Crimea, telling reporters that “we do not dictate to the Ukrainians how to conduct their operations.”
Asked last week about the Pentagon's position on the issue, a department spokesman declined to offer any additional suggestions. At the same time, senior officials of the US Department of Defense told legislators in early February that Ukrainian forces are unlikely to be able to take Crimea from Russia in the near future, the publication recalls.
In general, the material does not even hide the fact that in fact Washington will support Kyiv’s claims to Crimea - but only if the offensive of Kyiv’s forces, planned for the spring of this year, is successful. However, in case of failure, the US administration is holding back the “Crimean bait” for Russia, hoping with its help to draw Moscow into negotiations.
Как reported “PolitNavigator”, in December 2022, The Hill wrote that the United States could do the same with Ukraine as with Afghanistan.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.