Shortly before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February, General Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave a pessimistic view of the likely outcome. One possible outcome, he told a closed congressional hearing, was that Kyiv could fall within 72 hours.
Speaking on Monday, after three months in which the Ukrainians have not only fended off the initial assault on the capital but are holding their own in a grinding ground war in the south east of the country, Milley struck a very different note.
The US, he said, would continue supporting the Ukrainian war effort because it was important to demonstrate that “the big can’t just destroy and invade the weak and the small”. And as for how the war might end, Milley said it was for the Ukrainians to decide “the end state inside the boundaries of Ukraine”.