‘EVERYTHING WE CAN’

U.S. Is Now Aiming to Degrade the Russian Military, Says Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin

Comments made after secret trip to Kyiv with Antony Blinken.

Lloyd Austin III, the secretary of defense, has said that a key U.S. goal in supporting Ukraine is “to see Russia weakened to the degree it can not do the kind of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.” Austin, speaking bluntly Monday after a tour of Kyiv on Sunday, said Russia had “already lost a lot of military capability and a lot of its troops, quite frankly, and we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability.” Austin was accompanied by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his trip, which was shrouded in secrecy until President Volodymyr Zelensky blurted out the secret at a Saturday afternoon news conference. They are the highest-level American officials to go to Ukraine since the invasion began, and they are believed to have discussed a ramping up of U.S. military aid to Ukraine. “The first step in winning is believing that you can win,” Austin told reporters. “They believe that we can win, we believe that they can win if they have the right equipment, the right support. We’re going to do everything we can—continue to do everything we can to ensure that gets to them.”