US secretary of state says crisis is ‘manufactured’; Washington, UK, EU, Australia and Japan hit Russia with sanctions. Follow the the latest developments
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US secretary of state Antony Blinken earlier said an invasion of Ukraine had been Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “plan all along”, calling the situation a “manufactured crisis”.
In a joint press conference with Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba in Washington held on Tuesday evening local time, Blinken said:
His plan all along has been to invade Ukraine; to control Ukraine and its people; to destroy Ukraine’s democracy, which offers a stark contrast to the autocracy that he leads; to reclaim Ukraine as a part of Russia.
That’s why this is the greatest threat to security in Europe since world war two”.
