US Defense Secretary Responds To Fighting Between Ukrainian And Russian Forces Bakhmut

Thank you. General Milley, I was wondering if you could clarify something you said earlier. You said the U.S. has a lot of allies and friends in the region. I'm referring to the Black Sea. It might it take from that that the U.

S. is prepared to send or request allied ships to go in and survey and possibly recover the drone, or is the expectation that the U.S. does not intend to recover the drone? And then Secretary Austin, I'd like to go back to some comments you made in Brussels. You said that Bakhmut was largely symbolic. Are you concerned that the Ukrainian investment in Bakhmut potentially takes away resources that could be applied to the spring offensive and risks the outcome of that offensive? Thank you. If you don't mind, I'll go first.

Nancy, first of all, let me applaud the valor, the persistence that we've seen from the Ukrainian soldiers. They have done amazing things in Bakhmut. I think the Russians have been working to take Bakhmut for some seven months or so now, and they haven't been very successful. And that's because of the diligence, the commitment, the focus of the Ukrainian soldiers. In terms of the significance of Bakhmut, I would say I would point to the fact that President Zelensky is fighting this fight, and he will make the calls on what's important and what's not important to his forces and whether he needs to reposition or remain in Bakhmut. The point that I would make is if he does make a call to reposition at some point in time, it doesn't mean that the war is lost. It may mean, and probably will mean, that he is positioning himself to maintain advantage.

And so I think that's the real key there. But whether or not he stays there or how long they stay there, that's President Zelensky's call and not anybody else's. And again, our goal is to make sure that we're supporting him in whatever battlefield decision he's going to make. And by the way, we're generating combat power to a degree that we believe that it will provide them opportunities, the change of dynamics on the battlefield at some point going forward. Whatever point that is, whatever they want to do in the future, I think the platforms, the training, the sustainment, the maintenance that we're providing will make a significant difference. And as we work through all of this with our allies and partners in detail today in the meeting, we are on pace. And that's in large measure due to the professionalism of our forces who are conducting the training and equipping, but also forces around Europe.

As the chairman pointed out, there are a number of countries that are conducting training in their countries. We're providing various platforms. And we're really focused on how we're going to sustain those platforms as well. And Nancy, on the question of the recovery piece, I wouldn't read too much into what I said. We do have allies and friends in the region. We don't have any naval surface vessels in the Black Sea at this time. And we'll work up options.

But as I said, at the outset, this is probably about 4,000 or 5,000 feet of water. And it probably don't know for certain yet. It will be days before we have actual facts on the impact and what debris is there. Probably sank to some significant depths. So any recovery operation from a tectos standpoint would be very difficult. If there is reason to believe that we could or recover something, then we'll work up options for the Secretary and the President to consider and we'll move from there. But we do have options and we do have friends and allies in the region.

We have time for one more. Let's go to costume.