“No one wants to celebrate another anniversary of the war in Ukraine,” Biden’s spokesman said

US President Joe Biden does not want to celebrate another anniversary of the war in Ukraine and looks to the future in the hope that his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky will be able to strengthen his position as much as possible before any negotiations with Russia.

This was stated in an interview with Efe by John Kirby, the communications coordinator of the White House National Security Council and who, due to frequent press conferences, has become one of the most visible faces of the Biden government.

On the anniversary of the start of the contest on the 24th of this month, Kirby reflected on the impact he has had on the world and highlighted the message of support Biden sent to the Ukrainian people on Monday with his visit to Kyiv.

– Why did Biden make the decision to travel to Kiev? How does it feel to be there?

– Biden was proud and happy to visit Kiev, just as the anniversary of that conflict is approaching. Nobody wants to celebrate another war anniversary. Obviously, we would like to see this end as soon as possible, but unfortunately, Russian President Vladimir Putin seems unwilling to do so. That’s why Biden went to Kiev. He wanted to tell the Ukrainian people that the US will be with them as long as it takes.

– You just mentioned that Washington will be with Ukraine “as long as it takes” and Biden often mentions that phrase, but what do you think? “How long does it take” to achieve what exactly?

– As much as it is necessary for Zelenski to be in the strongest possible position when he decides, and only if he decides, the time has come for negotiations with Putin. We have said many times, this war could end today. There was no reason for this to begin. Putin can end the war today. He chose this war and he can choose to do the right thing and leave the country. It seems that this will not happen and therefore we have to make sure that Zelenski is in the best possible position.

– Considering this situation you describe and that the war seems to be continuing. What is Biden’s opinion? Is there anything the president regrets or thinks could have been done differently over the past year?

– Since the war started last year, the president has focused on two very important things. The first is to help Ukraine. No one has surpassed the US in providing military and financial support to Ukraine over the past year. The second was to strengthen NATO’s eastern wing and make it clear to Putin, the world, and certainly our allies, that we take Article 5 on mutual defense very seriously. When this war began, there were 80,000 American troops on the European continent, now there are 100,000, and the president has devised a plan to maintain that number for the foreseeable future.

– You just mentioned NATO. How does Biden see the unity of NATO and the European Union for the future?

– The EU and NATO continue to be fully united against Putin, demanding accountability and helping Ukraine. Mr. Putin believed that using energy and food as weapons would break those alliances; but all he did was strengthen them. NATO is now stronger than ever and could soon be joined by the armed forces of two more countries: Finland and Sweden.

Turning to China, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that he had evidence that the Asian country was considering sending weapons to Russia. What evidence does the US have?

I can’t go beyond those comments except to say that China has a choice. Obviously, we would prefer China to side with the rest of the international community and condemn what Putin is doing in Russia, respect the sanctions imposed on Russia, and help the rest of the world isolate Putin. However, China did not do this. And their calls to negotiate peace are quite hollow, given that China has not seriously joined the world in condemning this war.

-Finally, I wanted to ask you about Latin America. In January, the Pentagon announced that it is negotiating with some Latin American countries in order to hand over to the US the material acquired in Russia and thus solve the problem of supplying weapons to the Ukrainian forces. What is the state of these negotiations? Has any Latin American country agreed to hand over their old Russian weapons to the US?

– At this moment, I cannot give you information about the response of any Latin American country, nor about any type of transaction. But I will say that all these decisions that are made to help Ukraine are sovereign decisions and each nation has to make their own decisions and see how much to help the Ukrainian government. We want as many countries as possible to support Ukraine, but we also respect and understand that they have to make their own decisions based on their own security.