The United States was powerless in stopping Russia from invading Ukraine without military intervention, said Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
Milley’s comments in front of the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday appear to acknowledge a downfall in the Department of Defense’s policy of “integrated deterrence,” which refers to the integration of all instruments across domains such as nuclear, cyber, informational, and conventional. He appeared along with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
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“I think that with respect to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it’s been a long-standing objective of Putin and candidly short of the commitment of U.S. military forces into Ukraine proper, I’m not sure he was deterrable,” Milley said. “This has been a long-term objective of his that goes back years, so I think the idea of deterring Putin from invading Ukraine, deterring them by the United States, would have required the commitment of U.S. military forces, and I think that would have risked armed conflict with Russia, which I certainly wouldn’t have advised.”
Following Russia’s invasion, which began on Feb. 24, the U.S. and other Western countries announced sanctions that have crippled Russia’s currency, harmed the Russian economy, and led to a crackdown on Russian oligarchs across the globe.
President Joe Biden said late last month that the “sanctions never deter” and that he “did not say that, in fact, the sanctions would deter him.”
“The maintenance of sanctions, the increasing the pain, the demonstration of why I asked for this NATO meeting today is to be sure that after a month, we will sustain what we’re doing not just next month, the following month, but for the remainder of this entire year,” he said. “That’s what will stop him.”
His comments contradicted statements made by the vice president, national security adviser, secretary of state, and others who said that was indeed a goal.
Last week, Gen. Tod Wolters of U.S. European Command told committee members he couldn’t argue with the conclusion that deterrence had failed.
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The Pentagon released a fact sheet last week on the National Defense Strategy.
“The Department will advance our goals through three primary ways: integrated deterrence, campaigning, and actions that build enduring advantages,” it read. “Integrated deterrence entails developing and combining our strengths to maximum effect, by working seamlessly across warfighting domains, theaters, the spectrum of conflict, other instruments of U.S. national power, and our unmatched network of Alliances and partnerships.”
