WASHINGTON
\nRussia will not achieve a military victory in Ukraine, top US officer General Mark Milley said Thursday, while also cautioning that Kyiv is unlikely to force out all of Moscow\u2019s troops anytime soon.
\nHis comments underlined forecasts that the war in Ukraine is set to drag on, with neither side positioned to win a clear-cut victory and no negotiations currently taking place.
\n\u201cThis war, militarily, is not going to be won by Russia. It\u2019s just not,\u201d Milley told journalists after the conclusion of a virtual meeting of dozens of countries that support Ukraine.
\nRussia\u2019s original strategic objectives, including overthrowing the government in Kyiv, \u201care not achievable militarily, they\u2019re not going to be done,\u201d Milley said.
\nAt the same time, there are hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers in Ukraine, making Kyiv\u2019s objective of recapturing all of its territory unlikely \u201cin the near term,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThat means fighting is going to continue, it\u2019s going to be bloody, it\u2019s going to be hard. And at some point, both sides will either negotiate a settlement or they\u2019ll come to a military conclusion.\u201d
\nThe US has spearheaded the push for international support for Ukraine, quickly forging a coalition to back Kyiv after Russia invaded in February 2022 and coordinating aid from dozens of countries.
\nIn total, Ukraine\u2019s supporters have provided nearly $65 billion in security assistance to the country, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
\nThe White House said last week that Washington would support providing advanced warplanes including F-16s to Ukraine, dropping previous reluctance to do so.
\nOn Thursday, Kyiv\u2019s supporters \u201cdiscussed plans for training Ukrainian pilots on fourth-generation fighter aircraft, including the F-16,\u201d Austin said alongside Milley, noting that \u201cplanning and executing this training will be a significant undertaking.\u201d
\nThe US defense chief said that a fund may be established for financial contributions to aid the effort from countries that do not have F-16s or the capabilities to assist directly with training, maintenance or sustainment.
\nMilley explained the US shift in favor of providing Kyiv with the warplanes by saying that doing so earlier in the conflict would have taken funds away from more immediate needs, while building Ukraine\u2019s air force is a long-term endeavor.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s going to take a considerable length of time to build up an air force that\u2019s the size and scope and scale that\u2019ll be necessary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON Russia will not achieve a military victory in Ukraine, top US officer General Mark Milley said Thursday, while also cautioning that Kyiv is unlikely to force out all of Moscow\u2019s troops anytime soon. His comments underlined forecasts that the war in Ukraine is set to drag on, with neither side positioned to win a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-333627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n