Antony Blinken expects 'many months' of Russia-Ukraine war

In a joint news conference with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday (June 1) that Russia's war in Ukraine was expected to go on for "many months". Blinken said that as "best we can assess right now, we are still looking at many months of conflict". 

During the presser, he said, "That could be over tomorrow if Russia chose to end the aggression. We don't see any signs of that right now." 

"As long as this goes on, we want to make sure that Ukraine has in hand what it needs to defend itself and we want to make sure that Russia is feeling strong pressure from as many countries as possible to end the aggression," he added. 

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He said this in context to the recent US arms supplies to war-torn Ukraine. The United States announced that it is sending advanced missile systems to Ukraine. The new weapon is the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system. 

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The move has been criticised by Russia but Blinken said during the press conference that Ukraine had promised not to use new long-range missiles to strike inside of Russia. 

He said that the Ukrainians have given "assurances" that they will not use these systems against targets on Russian territory. Blinken added that there is a "strong trust bond" between Ukraine and the United States, as well as with allies and partners. 

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