Antony Blinken says US is not seeking Russian regime change

The US is not seeking regime change in Russia, secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Sunday, a day after president Joe Biden apparently called for his Russian counterpart’s ousting.

Biden on Saturday condemned Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, saying “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power”, in remarks that drew condemnation from Moscow.

Speaking in Jerusalem on Sunday, Blinken told reporters that “the president, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else”.

Blinken said: “As you know, and as you have heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia — or anywhere else, for that matter.”

His comments were the second US attempt to walk back what appeared to be a call to oust Putin from power during a speech in Poland in which Biden warned transatlantic democracies to steel themselves for a “long fight ahead” to protect freedom in Europe.

The White House later said that “the president’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region”, rather than a plan for regime change.

On Sunday, European countries emphasised the importance of avoiding an escalation of the geopolitical situation.

French president Emmanuel Macron said he would not echo Biden’s words and that efforts should be made not to worsen the situation, adding that he aimed to continue to talk to Putin in an attempt to bring about a ceasefire.

“I think we need to be factual and do everything not to allow the situation to spiral,” Macron told France 3 TV. “I will not make those kind of comments . . . We shouldn’t be in an escalation of words or actions.”

The UK said it was not pushing for regime change and believed Putin should be offered an “off ramp” from the war. “It’s good in principle to incentivise good behaviour, not encourage worse behaviour by suggesting there is nothing left to lose,” said one senior British official.

Liz Truss, UK foreign secretary, said sanctions could be lifted if Putin withdrew from Ukraine and committed to “no further aggression”.

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In the event of a “full ceasefire and withdrawal”, sanctions against Russian banks and individuals could be relaxed but, she told the Sunday Telegraph, “snapback sanctions” could be reimposed if Putin reneged on any agreement. It is the first time a senior British figure has talked so openly about the scenario for lifting sanctions.

A senior Turkish official said that “burning bridges” with Russia would not help to end the conflict, adding that it was important to try to understand Moscow’s position. Ankara, which has strived to maintain its close ties with both Moscow and Kyiv since the invasion last month, has sought to act as a mediator.

“Ukrainians need to be supported by every means possible so they can defend themselves . . . but the Russian case must be heard, one way or the other,” Ibrahim Kalin, a top aide to president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told a conference in Doha, Qatar. “If everybody burns bridges with Russia then who is going to talk to them, at the end of the day?”

One official from a Nato member state said it was “not great leadership” to call for Putin’s overthrow: “Real leadership means supporting the Ukrainians with equipment in such a way that they can cause the Russians big losses.”

Wolfgang Ischinger, a former top German diplomat and former head of the Munich Security Conference, warned that Biden’s speech threatened to further inflame tensions with Moscow.

“The Russian interpretation will be that this confirms that US priority is not the rescue of Ukraine, but the destruction of Russia,” he wrote on Twitter. “Emotionally, Biden statement is understandable, but quite unwise, strategically.”

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told the state-run Tass agency that “these personal insults narrow the window of opportunity for our bilateral relations [to improve] under the current [US] administration”.

Russia’s military is pursuing its threat to encircle Ukrainian forces in the country’s east while stepping up attacks on fuel and food depots across the country according to western military assessments.

“Russian forces appear to be concentrating their effort to attempt the encirclement of Ukrainian forces directly facing the separatist regions in the east of the country, advancing from the direction of Kharkiv in the north and Mariupol in the south,” the UK ministry of defence said on Sunday.

The governor of Sumy, a region on the northern border with Russia, said Ukraine’s forces had retaken two towns on the supply route to the regional capital.

Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry, said Russia had begun targeting food and fuel storage facilities and had started to build up new groups of forces near the border, suggesting it was planning new assaults on Ukraine, according to Reuters.

Also on Sunday, the leader of the Luhansk People’s Republic, one of two Moscow-backed separatist groups in Donbas, said the group could soon hold a referendum on joining Russia — a possible precursor to the formal annexation of more Ukrainian territory by Moscow.

Additional reporting by Andres Schipani in Lviv, Sarah White in Paris, Martin Arnold in Frankfurt, George Parker in London and Laura Pitel in Ankara