WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top U.S. general on Wednesday played down the odds of any near-term, outright military victory by Ukraine, cautioning that Russia still had significant combat power inside of Ukraine despite suffering military setbacks in its invasion.
“The probability of a Ukrainian military victory — defined as kicking the Russians out of all of Ukraine to include what they claim as Crimea — the probability of that happening anytime soon is not high, militarily,” Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news conference.
“Politically, there may be a political solution where, politically, the Russians withdraw. That’s possible,” he added, saying Russia “right now is on its back.”
(Reporting by Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart and Caitlin Webber; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
