counteroffensive. this is 30 minutes.

>> i want to thank general milley for his leadership and deep commitment to the defense of ukraine. today's meeting comes at a critical time. we are following on the heels of a highly successful nato summit last week where many of our closest allies announced significant security packages for ukraine defense.

ukraine is continuing the critical counteroffensive to regain sovereign territory. we are seeing ukraine make progress and russia's losses continue to mount. ukrainian people have shown outstanding courage as they fight for their country. as we saw again today, this group stands united behind them. we recommitted to supporting ukraine during their crucial counteroffensive and for the long haul. this is no time to slow down. the united states and our partners and allies have moved mountains to provide ukraine with critical air defense systems, ignitions, and more. so coming out of today's meeting, i am grateful to all of our allies and partners for their commitment and clarity and purpose. i have asked our friends to

continue to dig deep into military stocks because we are going to do what it takes to support ukraine's right to live free today and in the future. during today's meeting we talked about ukraine's ongoing requirements, including the urgent need for ammunition. we also discussed plans to ramp up production at the national level and multinational level through the eu important initiative to produce more ammunition. we heard from the co-leads of the f-16 training coalition, denmark and the netherlands. they continue to make progress to help eager ukrainian pilots learn how to drive for -- learn how to fly fourth generation aircraft.

such initiatives clearly show members of this group continue to meet ukraine's near-term needs while also working to get ukraine what it needs for the long term. in other words, we are going to continue to walk and chew gum at the same time. sweden and france have both signed bilateral agreements with ukraine for defense procurements and more. and that's going to help ukraine get even more advanced systems and it will foster deeper cooperation going forward.

and both of these agreements demonstrate our long term focus on building up ukraine's enduring strength, these commitments underscore how badly putin miscalculated when he invaded ukraine last year, three of his blunders are especially clear today. first, putin thought that he could take kyiv in days and force a new government of russian puppets on the ukrainian people, but ukraine chose to fight back. the ukrainian armed forces have defended their country with courage and skill. second, the kremlin bet that the world would just live with its cruel assault on ukraine. but russia's aggression and atrocities have shocked the world including even moscow's long term partners. and that brings me to putin's final miscalculation. he thought that ukraine's friends would waver or flee. instead, nations of goodwill from around the world have stood up for ukraine's sovereign right to defend itself. and by joining together, we have achieved something extraordinary. and today this contact route stands as united and firm as ever. so make no mistake. we are determined to support ukraine's fight for freedom for

as long as it takes with that. with that, let me turn it over to general milley. general milley: i appreciate that and good afternoon, everyone and thanks for being here. i want to start by thanking secretary austin for his unwavering commitment and leadership to the ukrainian defense contact group in support of ukraine in the time of need. this is our 14th meeting and month after month, secretary austin keeps the direction of this 50 nation plus strong coalition focused on the strategic objectives. and i also want to express my deep appreciation to the various ministers and chiefs of defense who participated today whose unfaltering support to ukraine has been a beacon of solidarity since russia began its vicious war of choice for more than 500 days. russia has continued their illegal war while ukrainians have stood strong in the face of russia's unprovoked attacks and are an inspiration to all three

-- free nations. russia's war of choice. russia's war of aggression is a frontal assault on the rules based international order that has prevented great power war for the last eight consecutive decades. it is not only an illegal war of aggression, it's also an unnecessary war against a country that presented no military threat to russia, an unnecessary, unjust, illegal war of aggression for more than 500 days and yet the ukrainian people have demonstrated their extraordinary determination to remain free, of freedom they have known for the last 30 years. they fight with grit and tenacity, exhibiting a profound spirit of resistance and resilience. as ukraine continues its counter offensive, we are reminded that real war is not war on paper. real war is unpredictable, it's filled with fear and fog and friction. real war is brutal. the crucible of combat is enormous costs in terms of killed, wounded, displaced persons and refugees.

and yet despite the enormous costs, the ukrainians are advancing steadily and deliberately, braving brutal and bloody battles to reclaim their homeland. as we publicly said weeks ago, this offensive will be slow, it will be difficult, and it will come at a high cost. this battle continues as the ukrainians fight through dense minefields and obstacles while a robust ukrainian reserve force lies in wait to be committed at the optimal time and place of ukrainian choosing. ukrainian contact group's assistance to ukraine goes beyond mere words or symbolic gestures. we are committed to helping them where it matters most. collectively, the coalition has trained 17 brigade combat teams for this offensive and more than 63,000 troops and the united states alone has trained 15,000 of those come up with more training ongoing. training has included individual non commissioned officers and

officers and staff training along with artillery, air defense artillery, engineers, logistics, medical and of course putting it all together and combined arms maneuver at night. this training has developed tangible skills that have helped create capable ukrainian leaders and units that are having a measurable impact on the battlefield today. the united states additionally recently announced an additional security package of up to $800 million. this latest security assistance package includes substantial provision of additional artillery munitions to include high mars and air defense weapons such as patriot missiles. it also includes a broad range of artillery systems and munitions, anti army munitions, precision, aerial munitions, demolitions and various other supplies that are necessary to keep ukraine in the fight. in combination, this training and equipment enables ukraine to have the capacity and the capability to defend itself. u.s. security assistance to

ukraine now totals over $40 billion, which sends a very clear message. as president biden, secretary austin and the various heads of all the nation states in support of ukraine and vilnius stated we stand firm in our ironclad commitment to provide practical support to ukraine as it continues to defend its independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. the vilnius summit communique said, "we reaffirm our unwavering solidarity with the government and the people of ukraine in the heroic defense of their nation, their land and our shared values." as president biden said, "our commitment to ukraine will not weaken. we will stand for liberty and freedom today tomorrow. and for as long as it takes." ukraine's fight is not merely a battle against an aggressive

invader. it's a fight for the principles that bind us as a free world sovereignty, self determination and the rule of law versus the rule of force. today's gathering of the ukraine defense contact group underlines our global commitment. thank you and i look forward to your questions. >> all right. thank you both. we'll go to questions now. the first we will go to lita baldor with the associated press. >> thank you, mr secretary. good afternoon. as you both know, a u.s. soldier crossed the border into north korea today after having been released from south korea prison. can you tell us what you know about this case right now? are the north koreans forcibly detaining this soldier? are you concerned about what security breach this could represent? and for general milley, general milley, there have been a recent increase in the number of very aggressive incidents over syria involving russia. what do you think has caused this? is this a result, do you think of the ukraine war pressure on russia? and does the u.s. need to send more assets to that area?

>> thank you, lita. what i can confirm, i would say up front that we are very early in this event. there is a lot we are still trying to learn. but what we do know is that one of our service members who was on tour willfully and without authorization crossed the military demarcation line. we believe that he is in the brk custody. and so we're closely monitoring and investigating the situation and working to notify the soldiers next of kin and engaging to address this incident. in terms of my concerns, i'm absolutely foremost concerned about the welfare of our troop. and so we will remain focused on this, and again, this will develop in the next several days and hours and we will keep you

posted. >> regarding syria, there is a bit of an uptick but i would not overstated too much. i think that our forces have adequate rules of engagement and authorities provided to defend themselves. and the second thing is we have a deconfliction channel. i think you're aware of that. we have a deconfliction channel that centcom operates on a day to day basis in order to prevent any sort of incident or escalation. we are monitoring it very closely. as to reason why for the uptick, i am not certain, we have analysts trying to figure it out. i don't know if it's connected to ukraine or not. right now there is nothing to suggest that it is. we are adequately protected and our focus is always on our own force protection. >> is there a need to put more forces in that region, considering a lot have been shifted to asia? >> we've got adequate capabilities to defend ourselves. >> all right, thank you.

second question will go to arise ali with reuters. >> thank you. general milley, we're now entering the fifth week of the counter offensive sort of going into the sixth week. and you publicly have talked about as have others in the us -- u.s. government about how the counteroffensive is growing slower than expected. i appreciate the realities of the front lines, the minds and the situation there, but has the counter offensive stalled? and how is this not a failure so far? and secretary austin, you talked about the alliance and the contact group being together, but public, there seems to be a bit of fraying. defense minister wallace last week said that he had told his ukrainian counterparts that we are not amazon and that they should show some appreciation. do you agree with the sentiments that secretary wallace expressed? and what exactly do the ukrainians need to sort of break the front lines in the security zone and make the progress that you had expected them to make? >> first, thanks. i'll answer first and then the

chairman can chime in. we are just back from the summit in vilnius. and what i witnessed in vilnius was indeed unity and cohesion uh -- cohesion in every meeting i sat in. so it is the same thing i witnessed today as i talked with ministers and chiefs of defense, the unity is still there. there's no question that we have provided ukraine a lot. the international coalition. ukraine is in a fight and we have to remember that when you are in a fight, you want everything that you can get your hands on. so that is to be expected. ben wallace and i have worked along with the coalition partners over the last year or so on this particular issue.

and ben has done a lot to enable and to help the ukrainian military. so he's been a great partner. but again, i continue to see unity and cohesion. i continue to hear ministers say that we're going to support ukraine for as long as it takes. and i heard their leaders say the same thing in the oneness last week -- in vilnius last week. this is about more than just ukraine, this is about rules based international order. i think people around the globe realize that. it is about the ability of a country to protect its sovereign territory. so there is an interest around the globe to ensure that ukraine can be successful in defending

its sovereign territory. general milley: a couple things. first of all, the russians have had several months to put in a very complex defense in depth. the linear defense in depth, it's not quite connected trench lines like world war i, but it is not dissimilar. lots of complex minefields, dragons, teeth, barbed wire trenches, et cetera. they've got a very extensive security zone in depth and then they've got at least two, perhaps even three main defensive belts. so they've had a long time to prepare that. now they suffered a lot of casualties. the russians did. to date. so they've also done that mobilization from months ago. the troops that are manning the russian lines are poorly trained, poorly equipped, their sustainment logistics is not high, the morale is low. and now recently because of the persian mutiny, the command and control apparatus at the strategic level is certainly confusing at best and probably challenging in many, many other

ways. at the operational and tactical level they've had significant , casualties among their officer corps. but in addition to that, the recent events also led to and you're reporting it in the media about various folks being replaced. so the russian situation is not very good even though they've been fighting a fight because of the minefields. what the ukrainians have though is a significant amount of combat power, not yet committed. and i will not say what's going to happen in the future because that's going to be a ukrainian decision as to where and when they commit their reserve. right now they are preserving their combat power and slowly and deliberately and steadily working their way through all these minefields. it is a tough fight. a very difficult fight. it started five or six weeks ago. and the various war games that were done ahead of time have predicted certain levels of advance. and that has slowed down why? because that's a different war on paper and real war. these are real people in real machines that are out there really clearing real minefields and they're really dying. so when that happens, units tend

to slow down, and that is rightly so in order to survive and get through the minefields. so they are working their way through it. it is far from a failure, in my view. i think that it's way too early to make that kind of call. i think there's a lot of fighting left to go and i'll stay with what we said before. this is going to be long, it's going to be hard, it's going to be bloody. and at the end of the day, we'll see where the ukrainians end up vis a vis the russians. >> and let me just tag on to what the chairman said. i absolutely agree with everything the chairman said, but i would remind you that we, this is not over, we continue to generate combat power, training, training and equipping three brigades in germany right now and there is ongoing training around the region. countries continue to provide platforms. we talked about the additional infantry fighting vehicles on the horizon as well as artillery

pieces. so we are going to continue to generate combat power and to push in additional bradley fighting vehicles and strikers and artillery pieces as mentioned earlier. our work continues and we will do everything we can to make sure that ukrainians can be successful. >> third question i'll go to missy ryan at the washington post. >> i have two ukraine related questions. secretary austin, i wanted to follow up on the g7 statement that came out last week regarding the framework for providing security assurances to ukraine. president biden has publicly the israel mou model. is there a possibility that the united states could help ukraine achieve or secure some sort of parallel qualitative military edge or could the united states provide a mutual defense

agreement to ukraine as part of that security assurance? and do you expect that it's politically feasible to have the kind of agreement that we have with israel for ukraine? and then for you, chairman milly ukrainian military leaders have , said how grateful they are for u.s. support but at the same time i met various leaders have said they don't think it's reasonable for ukraine to be conducting this kind of major offensive, especially with combined arms maneuvers without the ability to have greater air power and provide air support to the troops. and they say nato would never dream of asking its forces to do that even given the russian air defense system that is there. what is your response to that? can you walk us through your thinking about my crane is and should be able to conduct this

offensive without the greater air power that some of the ukrainian leaders are asking for. thank you. >> thanks. i counted about 12 questions but we will do our best. [laughter] first, on the agreement with ukraine. you saw evidence of this with the g7 announcement, we can expect that countries will execute bilateral agreements with ukraine going forward and certainly we will as well and that's a work in progress. but i would tell you our part of that, the chairman and i are focused on not only making sure that ukraine has what it needs to be successful today, but we also have to make sure that they have a capability to defend themselves in the future and to deter aggression in the future. so while we're doing what's necessary to make sure that they can be successful today, we're

also going to have to work with allies and partners to build a future force. and so that's a hard work that's got to happen. and right now we're kind of at that point where we're doing both simultaneously. so you see that in some cases, we have invested in some things that because they have to be produced, will not materialize until a couple of months or a year down the road. but those kinds of things help provide the capability that ukraine is going to need in the future. so the core of any agreement will be their ability to defend themselves and deter aggression. they've got to have the combat power to do that and that's what we're focused on. and then around that, you know, the bilateral agreement will certainly formed.

this is going to have to be work that nations take on together, not one nation alone. and so i look forward to working with my colleagues and state and foreign ministers to develop the way ahead for ukraine. >> missy, i offer two things. one is what's the military problem to solve here with the air power and its control of the air space. and you can do that two ways you can do that air to air or you can do that from the ground to the air. in terms of the most effective and efficient and cost effective way to do that right now for the ukrainians is from ground to air through air defense systems. and that's what they've been provided from the beginning of this war till now. and that's important because what you want to do is protect those assault forces from russian close air support and/or attack helicopter support. and they've got air defense systems, the ukrainians do that can do that. the casualties that the ukrainians are suffering on this offensive are not so much from russian air power. they are from minefields.

minefields that are covered with direct fire from antitank teams. that sort of thing. so it's minefield. so the problem to solve is minefields, not the air piece. that's what the coalition is trying to provide them additional mine clearing line charges bangalore, that sort of thing in order to continue to work their way through the through the minefields. so i'm confident that they can do this and especially if they execute the tactics, techniques and procedures that they've been taught, which they are doing and execute these operations at night, which would deny the russians the ability to use any of their air power anyway. so the real problem is the minefields. it's not the air power right now. having said that, 10 f-16s are $2 billion. so the russians have hundreds of 4th and 5th generation airframes. so if they're going to try to match the russians one for one or even, you know, 2 to 1, you're talking about a large number of aircraft that's going to take years to train the

pilots, years for maintenance sustainment, years to generate that degree of financial support to do that. you're talking way more billions of dollars than has already been generated. so the key thing is to focus on air defense, focus on the blocking and tackling sort of offensive combined arms maneuver, which is artillery at both long range and short range artillery and then get in your engineers and your mind breaching equipment. that's the kind of stuff they need. that's what they want. that's what they're asking for . when i talked with zelenskyy, that is why he is asking for. >> so final question, i'll go to jennifer griffin with fox news. >> secretary austin, i'd like to ask you about senator tuberville and the hold -- and his hold on military nominations. are you prepared to meet him halfway? and isn't the current policy in

violation of the spirit of the hyde amendment? even if technically you're not paying for abortions, you're paying for travel for potential abortions. and general milley, you say that you have enough assets in the middle east to counter russia to deter russia. but last week, russian planes loitered over the base where us -- u.s. military personnel are based. >> you can answer the first one, i will take the second one. >> thanks general. [laughter] i think we have to keep things in perspective. one in five of our troops are women. they do not get a chance to pick where they are assigned. they are serving their country, sacrificing each and every day. and they deserve, in my view, and in the view of our leadership, to have access to a noncovered reproductive health care. that is what this policy does.

and it focuses on health care, non-reproductive health care, it includes other things like ivf. it is important that our troops, our women understand that we care about them, that we understand that they do not get a chance to choose where they are assigned fired -- assigned. the importance of the health and welfare of my troops is really, really important to me. and we will continue to do what is necessary to ensure that they have that access. and i know senator tupper verl -- senator tuberville has said it is illegal. we point to the fact that there is an opinion posted on the

doj's website that details of this issue. this is a readiness issue. the fact that senator tuberville maintains this hold on the promotions of our senior officers, it cascades, it creates friction throughout the entire chain. it disadvantages families. the impact of that. i would ask senator tuberville -- as you think about this jennifer, i would imagine our adversaries would look at thing like this and be happy that we created this turbulence within our force. >> jennifer, as i said before, we have rules of engagement. our pilots are well trained,

they are empowered, the secretary has granted authority for them to defend themselves. if they sent it is hostile, they will protect themselves. secondly, if it is unsafe -- that is a different issue. we try to work that out through the deconfliction channel, so we do not have an air to air accident. i am confident that the forces know how to protect themselves and will protect themselves. [indiscernible] >> it won't stop them from flying in the air's -- airspace, but if they are acting unsafely or unprofessionally, we will work through that. but we will protect ourselves if there is a challenge. >> thank you. that is all the time we have. thank you ladies and gentlemen. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.o