Well, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here today. Its my pleasure to introduce secretary of defense lloyd austin iii and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general mark milley the second that you would deliver remarks and then they will have time to take a few questions. I will moderate this question and call on questioners. Thanks, patrick. Good afternoon, everyone. We had just completed our seventh meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, and its been another highly successful session. Now, we are meeting today as russia continues to target ukraines civilians and bombard its energy grid. But russias deliberate cruelty only deepens our resolve. And will continue to support ukraines bedrock right to defend itself and defend the rulesbased international order. Yesterday we saw reports of a deadly explosion in poland near its border with ukraine. I spoke last night to my polish counterpart, deputy Prime Minister Prime Minister of National Defense, and i conveyed my deepest condolences to the polish people and to the loved ones of those who were killed. I also underscored americas ironclad commitment to defend poland. We have full confidence in the polish governments investigation of this explosion, and they have been conducting that investigation in a professional and deliberate manner. And so we wont get ahead of their work. Were going to stay in close touch with our polish counterparts as well as with our nato allies and other valued partners. We are still gathering information but we see nothing that contradicts president duda is preliminary assessment that this explosion was most likely the result of a Ukrainian Air Defense Missile that unfortunately landed in poland. And whatever the final conclusions may be, the world knows that russia bears ultimate responsibility for this incident. Russia launched another barrage of missiles against ukraine specifically intended to target ukraines civilian infrastructure. This tragic and troubling incident is yet another reminder of the recklessness of russias war of choice. And ukraine has a bedrock right to defend itself, and we will continue to stand in solidarity with the people of ukraine as they defend their country, and we were joined today at the Contact Group meeting by my good friend, Alexi Resnick ofcom ukraines ministry of defense, and by deputy chief of defense lieutenant general. I spoke with the general by phone before this mornings Contact Group meeting about yesterdays explosion in poland. And will remain in close consultation as we move forward. Ukraines commanders have shown tremendous leadership and tenacity. And they updated the Contact Group this morning on the current battle Steel Dynamics and don ukraines most urgent selfdefense needs. Ukraines troops continue to consolidate the gains on the battlefield as they head into the winter. And the Contact Group continues to push hard to bolster ukraines air defenses in the face of russias ongoing barrages. I am pleased to be able to report that the air Defense Systems that we sent to ukraine are now operational. And their performance so far has been very impressive. The nasams systems are 100 success rate and intercepting Russian Missiles as the kremlin continues its ruthless bombardment of ukraine, including yesterdays attacks. Were also working to secure a more critical equipment to protect and repair ukraines Energy Infrastructure after russias indefensible attacks. We also heard an important update from general cavoli, our supreme allied commander in europe. Im confident the training effort spearheaded by the United States and many other members of his Contact Group will equip the Ukrainian Armed forces with the skills that they need to consolidate their gains and to seize new opportunities on the battlefield. I would also like to acknowledge that European Unions important efforts here. The eu Training Program across europe will do great deal to reinforce what other countries are doing bilaterally. Also like to recognize germany and poland for their leadership in this larger mission. And let me thank the uk for pledging to train another 19,000 ukrainian troops next year. The conficker also discussed important industrialbased initiatives to sustain our Security Assistance to ukraine. Let me also think the department cyclization and Sustainment Team as well as the cohost of the National Armaments directors, a working group under the Contact Group auspices. All of these initiatives help prepare the ukrainians o consolidate their gains during the winter, and to prepare to seize new initiatives in this spring. And you can see this Contact Groups ongoing unity and commitment in some of the announcements at its members made. I would like to thank sweden for coming forward today with a substantial 287 billion package of assistance to ukraine. This package includes key capabilities including an air Defense System that will bolster ukraines ability to defend itself against russias ongoing ruthless attacks. Spain has promised to send two moorcock launchers and missiles. Candidate is stepping up with its largest, with its latest tranche of 500 million of assistance, and in canada rs one of the lead donors. Germany has advanced muchneeded donations of air defense, artillery, m rs ammunition. And greece also announced an important donation of 155millimeter ammunition. And poland has committed additional Artillery Ammunition is a short range air defense capabilities. So these contributions will make a real difference. And so does the coordination of our Security Assistance at this Contact Group makes possible. So we will continue to deepen our Work Together and the Contact Group has met seven times this year and each meeting has produce tangible results that help ukraine defend itself and its citizens. You can see that progress in ukraines victories in kharkiv and kerr site. Over the weekend the world saw Ukrainian Forces liberate kherson compensating once again that the determination of the training people to live free in their own country. Our resolve is only strengthened by russias indefensible attacks on civilian targets. And we will continue to stand together in common purpose because no member of this Contact Group wants to live in a world where big countries bulldoze their peaceful neighbors. And we wont just accept putins imperial aggression and erosion of International Norms as some kind of new normal. Instead, we will continue to stand up for ukraines unalienable rights to defend itself. We will continue to strengthen our unity and resolve. We will continue to show the power of partnership, and we will continue to bolster Ukraines Armed forces by rushing in the capabilities they need to defend their country and will continue to help the people of ukraine in their fight for freedom. Thank you very much and i will turn it over to general milley for his opening comments. Thank you, sector also get appreciate that and appreciate your leadership as we gather today, this morning for the seventh consecutive convening of ukraine in Contact Group which weve been doing every month, as you know. And thanks also to all the ministers of defense after who participated at all my counterparts, all the charge that produce another senior reps at it from all 50 countries showed up at this meeting this morning and to continue to take part in these discussions which are very, very productive. The mission of the Group Remains clear, to support ukraine as they encounter the illegal and unprovoked russian aggression and to continue to supply ukraine with the capabilities necessary to defend their sovereignty. Through these Contact Group sessions and other close court nations that i have in the sector has with her counterparts that i talked to the general weekly and my staff continuing talks to his staff, we continue to respond to ukraines battlefield requirements and their needs for means of fighting for their freedom. This is a war of choice. Its a war of choice for russia. They embarked on a tremendous strategic mistake. They made a choice in february of this year to illegally invade a country that posed no threat to russia. In making that choice russia established several objectives. They wanted to overthrow president zelensky and his government. They wanted to secure access to the black sea. They want to capture edessa. They want to seize all the way to the deeper river, pause, they continue to attack all the way to the mountains. In short the one owe two overrun all of ukraine. Russia changed in march and beginning of april. Then focusing on the don bus. That was the operational objectors and they failed there. Then they changed again. The strategic reframing of the objectives have all failed. Every single one of them. Russias retreat. They retreated across the river, they move to more defensible position south of the river. Their losses due to ukrainian success in scale and bravery on the battlefield have been very, very significant. It is clear that the russian will to fight does not match the ukrainian will to fight. On the battlefield hit has been very successful where they crossed the river and they have moved east near the town. There is a significant ongoing fight right now and in the vicinity where the ukrainians are fighting a very, very successful mobile defense. Limited contact right now and limited contact in and around the Nuclear Power plant. As we already discussed, the offensive has been successful. Across the entire frontline trace of some 900 or so kilometers, the ukrainians have achieved success after success after success and the russians have failed every single time. They have lost strategically, they have lost operationally and i repeat, they have lost tactically. What they tried to do, they failed at. They started this war. Russia can and this war. Russia can make another choice and they can make a choice today to and this war. Russia is choosing to use their time to attempt to regroup their forces. They are imposing a campaign of terror. Maximum suffering on the population in order to defeat ukrainian morale. The russians are striking throughout the depth and breath of all of ukraine. Launch cruise missiles and other types of ammunition speared they are striking the civilian infrastructure and it has little or no military purpose. While assessments are ongoing, yesterdays strikes looked like they launched 60 missiles and may have launched upwards of 90hundred. We will have better assessments ahead. Largely the largest since we have seen since the beginning of the war. These missiles targeted intentionally and damaged civilian Power Generation facilities to cause unnecessary suffering with the civilian population. We assess now that over a quarter are without power. The deliberate targeting of the power grid causing excessive Collateral Damage and unnecessary suffering on the civilian population is a war crime. With the onset of winter, families will be without power and more importantly without heat. It will be severely impacted. These strikes will undoubtedly hinder the ability to care for the sick and elderly. The hospitals will be partially operational. The elderly will be exposed to the elements. In the wake of unrelenting russian aggression and incalculable human suffering, ukraine will continue to enjoy. They are free and they want to remain free. Ukraine will continue to take the fight to the russians. I just had a significant conversation with my ukrainian counterpart and he assures me that he will take that for ukraine. As ukraine continues to fight the defense capabilities are critical four success. An integrated air Defense System, air and missile Defense System is necessary. A significant portion of todays conversation in todays meeting with almost 50 countries focused on how we as a Global Coalition can provide the right mix of air Defense Systems and an munition for ukraine to continue its control of the skies and prevent the russians from achieving air superiority. To combat continued russian strikes the United States announced 400 million in additional commitments to support ukraine. Those capabilities included missiles for the hawk systems which is a compliment what spain is recently committing. Other air Defense Systems included in that package along with ground systems such as the grenade launchers and lots of other pieces of equipment. Wars are not fought by armies. They are fought by nations. This war is fought by the ukrainian people and it is fought by the russian people. This is a war that russias leadership has chosen to put russia into. They did not have to do this. But they did. They are violated ukrainian sovereignty and integrity of ukraine. It is incomplete contradiction to the basic rules that underlined the charter established at the end of world war ii. This is one of the most significant attempts to destroy the rules based order. We, the United States are determined to continue to support ukraine with the means to defend themselves for as long as it takes. At the end of the day, ukraine will remain a free and independent country with the territory intact. Russia could end this war today. Russia could put an end to it right now, but they will not. They will continue that fight into the winter as best as we can tell. We, the United States, we will continue to support ukraine for as long as it takes to keep them free, sovereign, independent with their territory intact. The president of the United States has been very, very clear to us that it is up to ukraine to decide how and when or if they negotiate with the russians. We will continue to support them as long as it takes. The United States will continue to support ukraine with the best possible equipment, positioned them on the battlefield, give them positions of strength against the russians and that is also true of all the other nations that defended the meeting today. There is an absolute sense of urgency, a sense of determination on the parts that attended our meeting today. I can tell you the cohesion and coherence of the organization is complete and the result is high. Ukrainians are not asking anyone to fight for them. They will fight for themselves. All that they are asking for is the means to fight. Ukrainians will do this on their timeline and until then, we will continue to support all the way for as long as it takes. It is evident to me in the Contact Group today that that is not only a u. S. Position, but it is a position of the nations today. We will be there for as long as it takes to keep ukraine free. Thank you and i welcome your questions. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Thank you. Just denied it was a missile that landed in poland speared how are you certain that this was possibly Ukrainian Air Defense Missile and was not a Russian Missile . First of all, the investigation is still ongoing and poland is conducting that investigation aired we are assisting in any way we can. We do have some experts on the ground that is helping in helping polish leadership aired we have to confidence in polands ability to conduct this investigation in a proper way. And until that is complete, i think that it would be premature for anybody to jump to conclusions. I know that ukraine has offered to participate and help in any way they can as well. We will not get ahead of, you know, the investigation. But, you know, our information supports what the president said earlier in his preliminary assessment. This was most likely, most likely, a result of a Ukrainian Air Defense Missile. We will let the investigation play out here. At this point are you confident in saying this is not a Russian Missile . We will let the investigation play out. Again, our information supports what was said earlier. Did you reach out to the counterparts . The russian counterpart, i did talk to my ukrainian counterpart immediately, talk to him several times, in fact, also a polish counterpart and exactly what the secretary said. Investigation ongoing. If they are professionals there to do their forensics, all the debris in and around the impact site so on and so forth. Did not take the call. Right. My staff was unsuccessful. That is correct. Next question. Abc. I would just like to follow up. In his remarks, president zelensky cited a conversation with your counterparts. Saying that he had confirmed that it was not a ukrainian missile. Based on the conversations today , was there a disconnect there . Eni, our agreement between each other is not to talk about the substance of the conversations we have. We have conversation several times a week. We acknowledge we have the conversations, but we do not discuss the substance of the conversation. I have to honor that and i will continue to honor that. Right now the investigation is ongoing. There is a debris field there. Other forms of data that will be available that come from various technical means. I suspect very shortly we will have very confirmed data as to what the point of origin is, impact, the angle of the weapon sis was, the flight directory, all details will be known in due time. The secretary will know that, President Biden will know that and we will all get informed here shortly by the investigators. Poland has put together a team. They are put together a team of professional investigators to do that. Yesterday was kind of the reality of the speculation that has been going on for months about how nato may respond if a Russian Missile went into nato territory. On the opposite side, very careful not to provide weapon systems that may reach into russia. What about crimea. Is that a concern given what we saw yesterday . The followup further from last week about the possibility of discussions, a slowdown in the fighting say in the winter. It sounds like the comments today, the ukrainians will continue very strongly. Are you pulling back from your comments from last week that you see an opportunity for negotiations with russia . No. I think the ukrainians keep the pressure on the russians. Winter gets very, very cold. The natural tendency is tactical operation slowing down. Right now what we are seeing are the lines from khakis all the way down to pierce on. For the most part beginning to stabilize. Nobody knows for certain. Come january or february, background probably will freeze which could lend itself to offensive operations. There could be a lot of activity in the winter. Typically speaking, because of the weather, the operations will slow down a bit. I think that President Biden and zelensky himself has said that at the end of the day there will be a political solution. If there is a slowdown in the optical tactical fighting, that may become a window, possibly, it may not, for political solution to issue a political solution. That is all i was saying. First, let me just agree with what the chairman just said. They are probably will be a slowdown in the fall and going into winter. When the ground hardens, the traffic ability will probably improve. We may see more activity. I would remind everyone that this war started in february. Winter does not mean that we will stop fighting or the ukrainians will stop fighting. I believe that they wont. We are going to do everything within our power to make sure they have the means to accomplish their goals and objectives. Along that line, the goals and objectives are the ukrainians. They are not ours. We have not prescribed to the ukrainians what they can and cannot do. And, so, our focus is to continue to provide them the means to be successful in their endeavors. That is my response to the question on crimea. It is an issue to be thought through and sought out by the ukrainian leadership. General austin. With winter coming. It is a bad habit, you keep calling me general. [laughter] secretary. Do you agree with the comments in new york last week that ukraine cannot achieve a military for three as defined by driving russia out of all of its territory including crimea and therefore should use winter as an opportunity to negotiate . Again, having the chairman here i think its fair to allow him to really provide context for his comments. You have heard me say this before. There are countless numbers of people that have been amazed and astonished by what the ukrainians have accomplished. I will not presuppose what is possible or impossible for them. What i am focused on is just making sure that they have the means to do two things. First is to protect themselves in the civilian population from some of the things we have seen here recently with the aerial bombardment spirit the second thing is to enable them to achieve their goals and objectives on the ground as they continue to try and take back their sovereign territory. So, we will continue to support them and i think to this point we have seen them come up with very achievable goals and objectives. We have seen a very successful counter objective. I think that they will continue to keep the pressure on the russians going forward. In terms of what is a good time to negotiate . We have said repeatedly that the ukrainians will decide that and not us. We will support them for as long as it takes. We just spent almost four hours with our colleagues in ukraine at a group meeting. It was amazing to me how many ministers of defense on their own said we will do this for as long as it takes. And, so, i continue to see unity , i continue to see resolved and that is very encouraging. As you know, they are in the meeting as well. I will make a couple of comments. First, on the russians. I solve a question for you. Ukraine is a pretty big country. This is not a small piece of turf. The probability of russia achieving its strategic object ebbs of overrunning ukraine, the probability of that happening is close to zero. I suppose theoretically it is possible, maybe, i guess, but i do not see it happening militarily. But they do currently occupy about 20 of ukraine. They occupy a piece of ground that is about 900 kilometers long. Probably about 75 or 80 kilometers deep. They invaded this country with 180,000 troops and multiple field armies. They have also done this mobilization. They have reinforced and they still have significant russian power inside ukraine. Ukraine has had Great Success in the defense. They did a tremendous job. It is incredible what they are able to deal. Then they went on the offense of beginning of september. They had Great Success and greater success as you just witnessed. Physically, geographically relatively small compared to the whole. The military task of militarily kicking the russians physically out of ukraine is a very difficult task. And it will not happen the next couple of weeks unless the russian army completely collapses which is unlikely. In terms of probability, the probability of a ukrainian victory defined as kicking the russians out of all of ukraine to include what they claim is crimea, the probability of that happening anytime soon is not hi, militarily. Politically, there may be a political solution where politically the russians withdraw. That is possible. You want to negotiate from a position of strength, russian right now is on its back. They are suffering tremendously. Though the leadership is really hurting bad. They have lost a lot of casualties killed and wounded. I will not quote exact numbers. They have lost a tremendous amount of their tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. They have lost a lot of their fourth and fifth generation fighters. The military is really hurting bad. You want to negotiate at a time where you are at your strength and your opponent is at weakness. It is possible that maybe there will be a political solution. All i am saying is there is a possibility for it. That is all i am saying. Thank you for doing this. You stressed that the United States and the allies are committed to ukraine for as long as it takes. How long do you think russia can continue this and how much has iran and north koreas weapons continued and mr. Chairman, thank you. You thoroughly answered my question. I will ask you a question on china. The meeting between biden and president xi jinping have you seen any position that they have changed the position to control taiwan and the last time the strategy was rolled out the pentagon said americas military edge was eroding. Is it still eroding to china. Thank you. In terms of how long russia can sustain their efforts, that is left to be seen. I think that the chairman gave a very accurate and compelling description of where kind of the russians are right now. They have some problems. Theyve had problems since the very beginning of this trying to sustain their efforts. Those problems have only become more acute. They have lost a lot of important like terry here. The numbers of tanks that they have lost, armored personnel carriers, pretty staggering numbers. The numbers of precision guided ammunition is striking. They will not be able to reproduce those very quickly. Trade restrictions that have prevented them from rapidly gaining microchips and other things that are required to produce these. So, it may take years for them to restock that inventory up to the point where they were before this conflict. We have seen them struggle with having enough to fight the way they want to fight so they are reaching out to iran, reaching out to north korea. I do think that those countries will provide them some capability. And, so, for that reason, i do not think this will be over anytime soon. Our goal, our requirement is to make sure we continue to provide ukraine with the means to do what is necessary to prosecute their campaign. They have to continue to keep the pressure on the russians going forward. We pushed, you know, enormous amounts of winter gear into ukraine thanks to countries like canada and others who have really been very, very generous. Russia on the other hand, they are fighting in a foreign country. Ukrainians have challenged their supply lines. It will be difficult for them to get the gear and for their troops that they need to fight effectively. I think that the ukrainians will have the upper hand in this fight, as they have right now, but they will continue to maintain that upperhand going into the winter. Just like we seldom operate in february of last year. They know the land, they can pull things from a local community and they will be prepared for this winter weather. I dont think that the russians will be as prepared and they will continue to struggle to get things into their troops using the supply lines that they currently have. Ukrainians will continue to supply those. Years that it would take to fully resupply. I do not think the ukrainians are going to allow them to hold out. I think the ukrainians will continue to pressure them. The battlefield dynamic will continue to change. Ukrainians know that allowing them to rest and refit and to rearm is mistake. That is an operational mistake. I do not believe they will make that mistake. My goal is to make sure they have the means to do what is necessary to ensure that they dont. You had two questions of the secretary. As quickly as i can say it, china is the pacing type as we describe it. Part of the National Defense strategy. What do we mean by that . We mean that china is the one country out there that geopolitically has the power potential to be a significant challenge to the United States. And they are. Based on the population, technology and economy and a bunch of other things. China is the greatest geopolitical challenge to the United States. China is not shy about their goal. They want to be the number one power in the globe i made century. By 2049. They want to do that militarily nipple medically, informationally and so on and so forth. They want to be number one by mid century. By the 2030s, mid 2030s, they had previously said they wanted to be number one regionally. They want to have a military that outdoes the United States militarily regionally by the mid 30s. And then they advanced that goal to 2027. They advanced that goal, to Party Congress is ago, one Party Congress ago and what they had said is they want to be equal to or superior militarily. They are working on that. We are working on it. Right now the United States military is without question despite the criticism, the multiple lethal war fighting machine on earth bar none. We intend to stay number one. We have a single purpose. We are laser focused on that. We intend to stay number one. China is not going to be a better military than the United States military is. Five years from now, 10 years from now on 50 years from now. They have a wide variety of areas in cyber and space and land and sea and air. A peasant army largely infantry based, when i was commissioned in 1980, that is kind of what he had when he made his reforms. He had a very large dismounted infantry, peasant based army more or less. And then they got rich. They made a massive amount of money with a 10 rise over run a dropdown 10 . The gep allowed them to buy military. They believe that it is their day in the sun. It is once again time for the middle kingdom to be number one. So that is what they are shooting for and we will not allow that to happen the United States military is number one now and they will be five years from now. We will stay number one the entire time. As long as we remain number one, then we will deter the war that people worry about. A great power for between china and the United States. As long as we have the military capability, the will to use it, your adversary knows it, then you will deter that war. The key is that the military capability and we intend to stay number one. Time for one final question. Thank you very much for taking my question. President biden essentially agreed to maintain the communication. Do you expect china and back are you planning to speak with the chinese counterparts . And to the chairman also on china, president xi jinping contradict his power in the communist power and he is now surrounded by his loyal advisors how much are you concerned that president xi jinping may make an illinformed decision to take taiwan by vote as president putin did leading up into the invasion in ukraine. Thank you very much. As you heard me say a number of times, i think it is really important for large countries with significant military capacity to talk to each other. As i told the administer when we talked, we met face to face in singapore, we needed to work to keep the lines of communication open. It helps with lines of crisis management, it helps with a number of things. My hope is that they will open up their communication channels. Not only at my level, but the chairmans level and at the level where our commander can engage with his counterparts as well. So, you are right, we will both be in cambodia here in the near future. I dont have any announcements to make in terms of any scheduled meetings, but there is an opportunity there we will see how things play out. First of all, i dont know president xi jinping, ive never talk to him, he will make decisions based on national interests. As best i can tell he is a rational actor. I think evaluates things on costbenefit and risk. I think he would conclude that an attack would be an excessive amount of risk and it would add in a debacle for the Chinese Military. I think it would throw off their china dream of being the number one economic and military power and so on it what he do it . Who knows. I will tell you we watch it closely. We are militarily prepared. One of the keys is to make sure that taiwan can defend itself. There are a lot of Lessons Learned coming out of the ukrainian war. Lessons learned for taiwan. There are lessons we are learning. And there are Lessons Learned that the Chinese Military are learning. One of the things that people are learning is that war on paper is a whole lot different than real war. When blood is built and people die and real tanks are being blown up, things are little bit different. A lot of friction and fog and death in combat. For a military that has not fought in combat since fighting the vietnamese in 1979, they would be playing a very dangerous game across the straits and invade the island of taiwan. They dont have the experience and background to do it. We watch it very, very closely. How much amphibious capability they have, how much airborne capability they have. They could vomit, they could miss a lit, but attacking and seizing the island of taiwan across the straits, putting troops on the island of taiwan, that is a very difficult military task to do. You have a large city. You have very complex terrain with mountains. Most of taiwan is a mountainous island. A very difficult military objective operation to execute. I think that it will be sometime before the chinese have the military capability and they are ready to do it. That could be wrong. An incident could happen. Some sort of political think it happen in a moment of time and all the decisions were changed very rapidly. I think the chinese would be high risk to take on an operation like that and i think it would be unwise. A geopolitical mistake, a strategic stake similar to what the mistake is that putin has made in ukraine. I will be talking with some of you this week and next week. I want to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a happy thanksgiving. On behalf of the department of defense, thank you for what you continue to do for our nation. Thank you very much. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen
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