Putin's bet on outlasting West "wrong" - U.S. State Department

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed for the first time during the latest "Direct Line" with citizens that he expects to outlast the West and wait for Ukraine's partners to get weary of providing more aid, but this is a miscalculation on the part of the Kremlin leader.

That’s according to U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, who spoke at a press conference in Washington on Thursday, Ukrinform's own correspondent reports.

"You heard President Putin I believe, for the first time confirmed something that we have said. You've heard us say from the beginning of this campaign that Vladimir Putin’s bet was that he could outlast the West and that the West would weaken, the West would stop supporting Ukraine," Miller said.

The State Department spokesman recalled that the American side assessed the Kremlin's approaches in exactly this way, and on Thursday Putin practically admitted that he had bet on this very thing.

"We have made clear that we believe that bet is wrong. And we believe that he will not outlast the West and he will not outlast the United States of America. And now it's up for the United States Congress to prove that that is wrong," said the spokesperson for the U.S. State Department.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the U.S. Congress is still considering President Joe Biden's national security supplemental funding request, including more than $60 billion in support of Ukraine.