Kiev gained’t obtain its army goals within the close to time period, Joint Chiefs chair Milley has mentioned
The combating in Ukraine goes to proceed with no army answer within the close to future, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Employees, Normal Mark Milley, advised reporters on the Pentagon on Thursday.
Milley spoke alongside Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin after the digital assembly of the ‘Ukrainian Protection Contact Group’, a set of Western international locations pledging to produce Kiev with weapons, tools and ammunition to make use of in opposition to Russia – whereas insisting they aren’t a celebration to the battle.
Ukraine’s strategic goals are to take all of the territory “occupied” by Russia, the place “a pair hundred thousand” Russian troops are at the moment positioned, Milley advised reporters. “That is likely to be achievable militarily, however in all probability not within the close to time period.”
“Which means combating goes to proceed. It is gonna be bloody. It is gonna be laborious. And in some unspecified time in the future each side will both negotiate a settlement or they are going to come to a army conclusion,” he mentioned. In the meantime, the US will proceed supporting Ukraine.
Austin and Milley insisted all through that Kiev was not shedding. They painted the months-long battle for Bakhmut, which Ukraine lost, as a triumph of protection. In addition they claimed that the Ukrainians have been utilizing the US-supplied Patriot air protection methods “very successfully.” The Russian Protection Ministry mentioned it had used Kinzhal hypersonic missiles to destroy a Patriot battery within the Ukrainian capital earlier this month.
Milley additionally defended the choice to not ship F-16 fighters to Ukraine sooner, arguing that the US was not ramping up weapons deliveries on account of public strain, however all the time sending Kiev exactly what it wanted at any given second, utilizing “hardcore army evaluation” of price, profit and threat.
Deploying simply ten F-16 fighters would price $2 billion, together with operations and upkeep, Milley defined, whereas Russia has over 1,000 fashionable jets. So the choice was made to produce Kiev with air defenses first, and ship the F-16s as a extra long-term answer.
“It is going to take a substantial size of time to construct up an air drive that is the scale and scope and scale that’ll be vital,” Milley mentioned. He additionally cautioned reporters to curb their enthusiasm, as “there aren’t any magic weapons. An F-16 is just not, and neither is the rest.”
It has been identified since February that Milley would retire in some unspecified time in the future this 12 months. On Thursday, US President Joe Biden nominated as his alternative the present Air Drive chief of employees, Normal Charles Q. Brown Jr.
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