Blinken says there will be an independent Ukraine 'a lot longer than there's going to be a Vladimir Putin'

"One way or the other, Ukraine will be there and at some point Putin won't," Blinken told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room."

His comments come as new satellite images show widespread destruction across Ukraine, including damaged houses in a village near Kyiv and smoldering homes in the besieged city of Mariupol, where more than 2,500 civilians have died, Ukrainian officials estimate.

The top US diplomat said Tuesday that the US is trying to prevent as much death and destruction as possible.

"The real question is how much death and destruction is wrought by Russia's aggression in the meantime, and that's what we're working as hard as we can to limit, to stop, to put an end to this war of choice that Russia is committing," Blinken said. "We're doing that through the support we're providing Ukraine every single day. We're doing that by the pressure we're exerting against Russia every single day."

Blinken said his hope is that the death and destruction can be ended "sooner rather than later."

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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