With the invasion of Ukraine, Putin "accomplished almost everything he tried to prevent" - Blinken

Russian President Vladimir Putin has "accomplished virtually everything he tried to prevent" by launching an invasion of Ukraine to separate Kyiv from the West, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said at a panel discussion in Davos.

"Ukraine was a profound strategic mistake for Vladimir Putin and for Russia in many ways," he said.

"Now you have a Russia that is generally weaker militarily, weaker economically, weaker diplomatically. Europe has lost its energy dependence on Russia. Ukrainians are more united than ever before. The NATO alliance is stronger, bigger and will become even bigger in the coming weeks," Blinken said.

Russia has repeatedly stated that Ukraine's aspirations for NATO membership violate its national security interests.

"Putin has already failed in what he set out to do: he wanted to wipe Ukraine off the map, eliminate its independence, and annex it to Russia. This has not succeeded, and it will not succeed," Blinken said, noting that Kyiv's intentions to deepen relations with the West and Europe did not necessarily mean "separation" from Russia.

"This was not incompatible with maintaining close ties with Russia: cultural, economic and other ties. Now these ties are destroyed because of Russian aggression," Blinken said.

In addition, Blinken, speaking at the World Economic Forum, called the withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal a "big mistake."

"I think it was a big mistake to break the nuclear deal with Iran. We had Iran's nuclear program in a box. After the deal was terminated, it broke out of that box. And now we're in a place where we didn't want to be because we don't have a deal, so I think it was very wrong," he said in a speech to delegates at the Congress Center in Davos.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump announced his withdrawal from the Iran deal in May 2018, reimposing broad sanctions on Iran instead. European countries expressed "regret and concern" at the time, and since then Iran has been enriching uranium to the highest levels in its history.

Background. As a reminder, NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg said at a meeting with Zelenskyy that Ukraine is closer to NATO than ever. He noted that Ukraine maintains its independence, Ukrainians rejected Russia and chose the West.