US Top General: May Make Sense For Ukraine To Negotiate

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley has provided a wide-ranging press conference at the Pentagon following a meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group.

• Milley says, "it's unlikely Ukraine militarily will be able to completely kick Russia out of its territory any time soon barring a complete collapse of the Russian military, which is unlikely, so it may make sense to negotiate."
• Per Molley Hunter at NBC: "Both [Defence Secretary Lloyd] Austin and Milley reiterating the fact that Ukrainians have the upper hand right now. They are in a position of strength. (And as Milley said more than once, it's always better to negotiate from a position of strength.)"
• Milley's comments are likely to lead to further speculation that behind-closed-doors Washington is prodding Kyiv to accept a less maximalist resolution to the war.
  • Currently, Kyiv maintains that Russian forces should be repelled from all de jureUkrainian territory, including Crimea, Donbas, and Luhansk, which have been under de facto Russian control since 2014.
• This is looking increasingly unrealistic and dependent on continued flow of military aid from Western allies, which may face a political squeeze in the coming months.