Julianne Smith, the US ambassador to
NATO, on Sunday said that Russia was unlikely to change focus on the Donbas
region as it did not succeed in its original aims in Ukraine.

“But what we do have evidence of is
the fact that the Russians have not succeeded in their original aims. And that
was, as you well know, to take Kyiv in just a couple of days,” she said.

“So, because of that, I think Russia is reassessing and they’ve indicated
that they’re going to alter their tactics, but let’s give it some time. Next
couple days, the United States, working closely with allies and the Ukrainian
government will be looking for evidence of this shift,” Smith added.

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Smith also defended the new measures NATO
and the US introduced to continue to punish Russia in the wake of US
President Joe Biden’s trip, even as Ukrainian officials have voiced disappointment in the
lack of support. Asked if NATO will give Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
fighter jets, Smith said, “this is an evolving conversation,” but
ultimately no.

On the question of cyberattack’s inclusion
into the NATO charter, Smith declined to “walk through
hypotheticals,” but said she did not doubt that if an ally were to
“come forward,” and invoke Article 5, the alliance “would be
ready to respond and take action.”

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US has no policy to change regime in Russia

Smith also said that the US does not have
any policy on regime change in Russia.

US President Joe Biden’s administration
continued on Sunday to clean up his off-the-cuff remark that Vladimir Putin
“cannot remain in power,” made on his final day in Europe.

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Smith called Biden’s surprising comments a
“principled human reaction,” made after he spent the day seeing the
firsthand tragedies of war, when he visited with hundreds of Ukrainian
refugees, in a Sunday interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the
Union.”

“He went to the National Stadium in
Warsaw and literally met with hundreds of Ukrainians. He heard their heroic
stories as they were fleeing Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s brutal war in
Ukraine. In the moment, I think that was a principled human reaction to the
stories that he had heard that day.”

Also Read: Emmanuel Macron fears verbal escalation after US President Joe Biden labels Russia’s Vladimir Putin ‘butcher’

Still, Smith said, the “US does not
have a policy of regime change in Russia, full stop.”

Her comments come hours after Secretary of
State Antony Blinken also tried to downplay the President’s remarks while in
Israel, saying, “I think the President, the White House, made the point
last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war
or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else.”