US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on Wednesday said he was “absolutely convinced that Putin will fail and Russia will suffer a strategic defeat”, CNN reported.

He spoke at a State Department news conference along with Liz Truss, the British Foreign Secretary. There, Blinken noted, “As we’ve said before, you can win a battle, but that doesn’t mean you win the war – on the contrary. You can take a city but you can’t take the hearts and minds of its people and Ukrainians are demonstrating that every single day”. 

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The US diplomat also noted if Putin’s “goal is to impose some kind of puppet regime by displacing the existing government and putting in place one to his liking, I think it’s pretty evident by the response of the Ukrainian people that they will never accept that”, and added, “And if he tries to enforce such a puppet regime by keeping Russian forces in Ukraine, it will be a long, bloody, drawn-out mess in which Russia will continue to suffer grievously”. 

While Blinken stated that the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, had been offered chances to deescalate the situation in Ukraine but he chose to continue “down this horrific road that he’s been pursuing”. 

Commenting on Russia’s troop movement in Ukraine, Blinken said “It’s not been able to hold Ukraine. It’s not going to be able to hold Ukraine in the long term, again, no matter what the tactical victories it may achieve are”. 

Notably, celebrated public intellectual Yuval Noah Harari, echoed these thoughts in The Guardian, saying “The Russians may still conquer the whole of Ukraine. But to win the war, the Russians would have to hold Ukraine, and they can do that only if the Ukrainian people let them.” 

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He noted, “Each Russian tank destroyed and each Russian soldier killed increases the Ukrainians’ courage to resist. And each Ukrainian killed deepens the Ukrainians’ hatred of the invaders. Hatred is the ugliest of emotions. But for oppressed nations, hatred is a hidden treasure. Buried deep in the heart, it can sustain resistance for generations”. According to Harari, who’s authored globally acclaimed books like ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind’ and ’21 Lessons for the 21st Century’, Putin must achieve a relatively bloodless victory in Ukraine for a hateless occupation.

However, he’s already failed in this regard with Ukraine accusing him of committing war crimes. Moreover, today’s reports of Russia shelling healthcare facilities are only making the divide between the countries grow.