US envoy to EU 'convinced' Ukraine will win 'with the weapons we're providing'

Talking Europe hosts Mark Gitenstein, the US ambassador to the EU and a close confidant of President Joe Biden since the 1970s. Gitenstein took up his position in Brussels a year ago, and it proved to be a baptism of fire, with the war in Ukraine starting just a few weeks into his job. We ask him about transatlantic cooperation on Ukraine and the recent tensions between Brussels and Washington in the light of the US Inflation Reduction Act, which the EU fears will put European companies at a competitive disadvantage.

Asked whether there’s appetite on both sides of the Atlantic to support Ukraine in the long term, Ambassador Gitenstein says: "I’ve talked to a lot of senators, Republicans and Democrats alike, and what I take away from those discussions, even from those who you might expect to be sceptics, is that they will continue to support this effort as long as the Ukrainians are successful on the ground. And the evidence so far has been pretty impressive. It will be difficult. Lives will be lost. There will be brutal destruction of civilian infrastructure and property. But in the end I am convinced the Ukrainians will win this, with the weapons that we're providing."

Produced by Isabelle Romero, Sophie Samaille and Perrine Desplats


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