US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a recent interview confirmed that the Ukraine government has a contingency plan if Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is assassinated during Russia’s invasion of the country. However, he refused to give any details of the Ukraine government’s plan in such a scenario.
“The Ukrainians have plans in place that I’m not going to talk about or get into any details on to make sure that there is what we would call continuity of government one way or another. And let me leave it at that,” he told CBS News’ Face the Nation in the interview on Sunday, when he was asked if the US was working on a contingency plan to support a Ukrainian government without Zelenskyy at the helm.
The US Secretary of State’s comments comes amid reports that the Ukrainian president has survived three assassination attempts already, with Zelenskyy himself opening up about the threats to his life. He has recently told US senators in a meeting that this may be the last time they were seeing him alive.
Antony Blinken was asked in this context that if Ukraine has any plans to survive without him. To this, the senator replied, “irst of all, let me say this, the leadership that the president Zelensky has shown the entire government has shown is remarkable. They’ve been the embodiment of this incredibly brave Ukrainian people. I was just a day ago in Ukraine, at least about 15 feet into Ukraine with my- my friend and colleague, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.” He added that the government will continue to function no matter what.
On the sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and other countries, Blinken said that the impact is already devastating. “The impact of the sanctions is already devastating, which is presumably why he said what he said. The ruble is in freefall. Their stock market’s been shuttered for- for almost a week. We’re seeing a recession set in in Russia. Consumers aren’t able to buy basic products because companies are fleeing Russia, so it’s having a big impact,” he told CBS News.
“But at the same time, we continue to see President Putin doubling down and digging in on this aggression against Ukraine. That’s continuing. I think we have to be prepared,” Blinken added.
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