Putin will lead Russia to strategic defeat in Ukraine, says Blinken

Blinken was talking at a press conference with the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, at which both pledged to keep up security and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.

He warned that if even if Putin succeeded in installing a puppet regime in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Ukrainians would never acquiesce.

Blinken also tried to explain the fiasco on Tuesday surrounding the plan to deliver Polish MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. The US had previously given a green light to Poland to supply the planes to Ukraine, saying it would replace them by providing more modern US fighter jets to the Polish air force.

On Tuesday, Poland announced it would hand all its MiG-29s to the US at the Ramstein airbase in Germany, taking Washington by surprise. Within hours the Pentagon said the plan was not tenable.

The Russian defence ministry has said that any country that provided bases from which Ukrainian war planes took off from to attack Russian forces would be considered as being involved in the conflict.

Both Blinken and Truss were questioned about the Ukrainian demands to establish no-fly zones over Ukraine, or at least over humanitarian corridors inside the country. Both ruled it out.