Friday marks one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. It has been a year of tragedy, of loss, and pain for the Ukrainian people, for Ukraine’s neighbors, and in a devastating domino effect – for all the starving people in Africa and elsewhere who normally rely on Ukraine's grain exports for their daily sustenance. USAID Administrator Samantha Power has traveled to Ukraine, meeting with President Zelenskyy, meeting with the people in the aid groups, surveying the war’s destruction, talking with the refugees. And joining me now is USAID Administrator Samantha Power, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, of course. Thank you so much Ambassador for being with us. There's so much on your plate, and you have been traveling nonstop for the last year or more. Russia has been attacking, as you know, energy infrastructure in Ukraine, using food as a weapon. These are war crimes. How can Ukraine’s people survive this long war, now coming to the second year? It's a war of attrition. I know we're helping. But fundamentally, the need is enormous.
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, I think Putin's calculation – of course invading Ukraine a year ago in the first place – was that this would be a cakewalk, that he and his proxies would be in control of Kyiv and control the whole country within a matter of days. Here we are a year later, and Putin has achieved exactly the opposite of what he set out to achieve. He tried to divide NATO – NATO is more united than ever, indeed is going to grow. And the effects in Russia proper of this war have been devastating, not least in terms of human life, and the enormous number of Russian casualties.
As it relates to winter and energy, and your question, it's sort of the same version on the theme. He went into the winter wanting to weaponize the cold, wanting actually to embed – as part of his military strategy – the destruction of critical energy infrastructure. And the United States government, USAID, has leapt in to provide everything from pipes to boilers, to even quite recently a substation that powers 100,000 homes. So, our effort has been to keep up with this campaign of disruption, and the temperatures will get warmer soon.
And I can't say the worst is behind the people of Ukraine, because every day is a day in which these savage methods are employed. But I think, just as Putin has done consistently, these attacks are so brutal and so grotesque that they have also had the perverse effect of strengthening unity. And so it's not just USAID that is there providing this energy support, helping repair pipes, you know, bringing homes back online, providing heating to families – it's much of the democratic world. And that's a really important aspect of this one-year anniversary is to just take note of how rare that is actually, in international conflicts, that you can sustain this level of support. And it is really because of the manifest on justness and brutality of this conflict imposed by Putin.
ANDREA MITCHELL: How do you convince the American people the importance of keeping U.S. aid going, keeping the assistance going, as you now have a more skeptical House majority, at least some members. And, you know, you have to deal with that in the State Department budget after this year's appropriations, starting next year.
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, at the end of last year, of course, not only was the regular budget approved, which provides really important support for our efforts all around the world, including to continue to be the world's number one humanitarian donor – to deal with things like the risk of famine in the Horn of Africa, the floods in Pakistan, the earthquake that we didn't, of course, know was coming, but that now we've been managing in Türkiye and Syria. So, we have been provided generous support, and that is going to carry us through much of this year. But there was also a supplemental passed at the end of the year, which is where we are able to provide up to $10 billion in direct budget support to the Ukrainian government to keep the lights on for much of this year.
The other thing I’d say Andrea – notwithstanding the vocal minority that is out there, of course, who may be questioning some of this assistance – you still see really strong support in the polls. There was a poll, I think taken just last week by Gallup, that shows that 65 percent of American adults favor continuing providing support to Ukraine to resist this aggression, even if it means that the war drags on, or even in the face of a much longer conflict. And so, you actually still see a very sturdy foundation here, and it's because of the demonstrable justice of the cause. And also the recognition of what it would mean to walk away from providing this kind of support – when a country was minding its own business, and attacked gratuitously like this – and what it would mean for Putin and his sense of impunity, he would feel to do other very reckless and deadly things.
ANDREA MITCHELL: And, of course, a major effort by the U.S. at the UN, by you and others, to finally unlock the embargo on grain getting out through the Black Sea. Türkiye was helpful. But this is a continuing issue, and there is less food around the world, especially in Africa, where China is competing with us. And despite NATO support, and European support for the war, we're facing India, China, Brazil, and other countries, much less supportive. So, the larger populations are not siding with us and China and Russia are making inroads. How do we compete there?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, I think we can disaggregate some of the aspects of what you described. I mean, first of all, it's absolutely essential that China not provide lethal support to Russia, and we have seen worrying signs in that direction, and that is absolutely imperative – that would be catastrophic also for China's standing in much of the developing world – because there is broad recognition of who the aggressor is, and who is at fault in this conflict. Even if Russian intimidation tactics, you know, occasionally can cause people to want to sit out a hard vote, the vote has been overwhelming, including from the Global South. I think when it comes to grain, you know, food prices go up everywhere when there is less grain on the market. And so actually, it was voices from that of Prime Minister Modi to that of key Brazilian officials that I think made a difference in convincing Putin to allow some of that grain to leave.
Unfortunately, Russia has begun to slow roll the exit of the grain and basically do fewer inspections. It's thus costing ships much longer to kind of idle in port – about $20,000 a day. This means that Ukrainian farmers are going to earn less money, and have to invest more in terms of inputs, and more in terms of transport. And ultimately, that's going to affect how much grain gets produced and how much grain is on the open market. So, we are involved in a big diplomatic push right now, along with the United Nations. Türkiye has been a key partner in that push, but it has its hands full dealing with the heartbreak that has occurred in the wake of the earthquake. But the renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative – so called – is coming up. And it's absolutely critical that more ships be allowed to leave, and more grain be brought on the open market because as you know, the effect on global food prices, wheat prices in particular, which so many developing countries depend on, that effect has been deadly.
ANDREA MITCHELL: In the last day, you were welcoming home U.S. relief groups, searchers who had gone to the earthquake zones in Türkiye and Syria. What can you tell us about this, you know, this catastrophe? And how they can rebuild? And people who are suffering already – refugee camps – that have no housing?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, I think the viewers have seen images out of Türkiye and read the stories, and we know for every unbelievable miracle of a rescue that occurred late last week, all of the people that weren't rescued because they were killed as soon as the earthquake struck, and the rubble descended on them, or because even with all of the outpouring of rescue support – just the scope of the earthquake was like nothing that Türkiye or Syria had seen. I think – to say a word about the rescuers because I take tremendous pride in leading an Agency that sends these search and rescue teams out when an earthquake strikes – this team that I greeted when they came back was based in Fairfax, Virginia. They answer the call whenever it comes – Haiti, Türkiye, you name it. And to see the families greet their loved ones, to know what ambassadors they are for the compassion of the American people, and for the competence of this country when we put our minds to it, was very heartwarming. But it doesn't divert from the core tragedy that has unfolded and we are in it for the long haul to support the Turkish and the Syrian people recover.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Ambassador Samantha Power, thank you so much. You're always traveling to these crisis zones and bringing US aid and we appreciate it. Thank you for being with us today.
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you, Andrea. Thank you.
Original source can be found here.
