Putin's effort to freeze Ukrainians must be defeated - Nuland

U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said this in a video address to the Kyiv Security Forum on December 1, Ukrinform reports.

"Putin's attempts at violent conquest, his war crimes, his nuclear blackmail, his hungry games, and now his effort to freeze Ukrainians as winter deepens must be defeated. Because if they are not, the world will be a much more dangerous place," she said.

Nuland added that if Putin wins, "not only will Ukraine's light as a sovereign, democratic nation fighting for its own future be extinguished, but every small and medium-sized nation around the globe living next to a big nation with a big military will wonder if they are next."

She also said that the United States had led the world in providing unprecedented levels of military, economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. As an example, she cited the fact that President Joe Biden had just asked Congress for additional $37 billion "to ensure Ukraine not only survives but thrives as a sovereign, secure and democratic nation and that Vladimir Putin suffers a strategic defeat."

"Putin must now be allowed to achieve with darkness and cold what he failed to achieve on the battlefield. And he failed because of the resilience, the bravery and the strength of the Ukrainian people. […] Not 'NA Ukraine' -- the edge of some fantasy empire of his, but a free, proud and increasingly successful European state," Nuland said.