‘Open season’ to start worldwide if Russia allowed to seize Ukraine - Blinken

If the civilized world fails to help Ukraine defend its sovereignty and independence, the threat of similar aggression will emerge on all continents.

That’s according to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who spoke at a joint press conference with South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor on Monday, August 8.

“If we allow a big country to bully a smaller one, to simply invade it and take its territory, then it’s going to be open season not just in Europe but around the world,” Blinken said.

The top diplomat noted that Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is not only an aggression against another country, “it’s an aggression against the foundational principles of the international system.” 

“Multilateralism is something that we both believe in and invest in,” the State Secretary said.

“The United Nations Charter, which puts at its heart the sovereignty and independence of nations, and it was created in large part to try to – after two World Wars to make sure that there wasn’t another one.  And the basic principles that it established were designed to do that,” Blinken emphasized.

If the world does not react to what Russia is doing in Ukraine today, this will have “repercussions everywhere,” which is why the U.S. believes it is “important to stand up for those principles.”

“And we hope to see, as the Ukrainian president has said, this resolved diplomatically over time.  But meanwhile, we have to defend the proposition that Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence matter.  They matter to Ukrainians, but they also matter to the world,” said Antony Blinken.