The US Secretary of State spoke about the developments in Ukraine at a special briefing today and once again accused the Russian President of premeditated aggression.

“As President Biden made clear last night, this is President Putin’s war. This isn’t the Russian people’s war. It’s becoming clearer by the day that the Russian people oppose it.

Members of the Russian military oppose it and had no idea what they were being sent to do. And now the Russian people will suffer the consequences of their leaders’ choices.

So my message to the people of Russia - if they’re even able to hear it, as the Kremlin cracks down even harder on media outlets reporting the truth – my message is that we know many of you want no part of this war. You, like Ukrainians, like Americans, like people everywhere, want the same basic things - good jobs, clean air and water, the chance to raise your kids in safe neighborhoods, to send them to good schools, to give them better lives than you had.

How in the world does President Putin’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine help you achieve any of these things? How is it going to make your lives better? The economic costs that we’ve been forced to impose on Russia are not aimed at you - they are aimed at compelling your government to stop its actions, to stop its aggression.

And just as millions of us around the world stand together against Moscow’s aggression, we also stand together with you as you demand that your leaders end this war. If President Putin wants to demonstrate leadership, he should allow Russian soldiers to go home to their families.

Finally, the United States is continuing our diplomatic efforts.

We’re keeping the door open to a diplomatic way forward. That’s going to be very hard to happen without military de-escalation. It’s much more difficult for diplomacy to succeed when guns are firing, tanks are rolling, planes are flying. But if Russia pulls back and pursues diplomacy, we stand ready to do the same thing”, - said Antony Blinken.