Lloyd Austin

Putin thought that he could easily topple Kyiv's democratically elected government. He thought that the wider world would let him get away with it. He thought that our unity would splinter, but he was wrong - on each and every count.

All of this is huge progress.

As Secretary of Defense, I will also not hesitate to take any additional measures necessary to safeguard our nation's secrets, accordingly, I am directing the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security to conduct a review of our intelligence access, accountability and control procedures within the Department to inform our efforts to prevent this kind of incident from happening again.

As President Biden has made clear, we will take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing, no group will strike our troops with impunity.

We have to deliver swiftly and fully on our promised commitments, that includes delivering our armored capabilities to the battlefield and ensuring that Ukrainian soldiers get the training, spare parts and maintenance support that they need to use these new systems as soon as possible.

I expect you to reverse the harmful trends at our [military service academies], now is the time to employ the resources with which we have been entrusted and advance our common way forward.

Over the past year, Russia's military cooperation with Iran has deepened. and that poses serious challenges for this region and for the safety of your citizens, iran is gaining important battlefield expertise and experience in Ukraine that will eventually transfer to its dangerous proxies in the Middle East.

Iran is gaining important battlefield expertise and experience in Ukraine that will eventually transfer to its dangerous proxies in the Middle East.

We're training and equipping several brigades of mechanized infantry - that's a pretty substantial capability, in addition to that, additional artillery, and so they'll have the ability to breach Russian defenses and maneuver, and I think that will create a different dynamic.

I think the things that we're doing, the capability that we're providing - again, capability, not just a platform - the capabilities that we're providing I think will enable the Ukrainians begin to change the dynamics on the battlefield, and so rather than having a stalemate, what you'll probably see is Ukrainians shaping this fight so they can create opportunities for themselves and exploit those opportunities going forward.

[W]hat the Ukrainians are interested in is getting the Russians out of their sovereign territory, and I think that's probably going to be their going-in point, but I'll let the Ukrainians speak for themselves.

As long as Ukraine continues to conduct operations and continues to work to take back its sovereign territory, we'll be there with them.

And so rather than having a stalemate, what you'll probably see is Ukrainians shaping this fight so they can create opportunities for themselves and exploit those opportunities going forward.

I've engaged my counterpart early on and told him that this would be a very bad mistake if China were to do this. It would complicate things.

Section 525 of the NDAA for FY 2023 requires me to rescind the mandate that members of the armed forces be vaccinated against Covid-19, issued in my August 24, 2021 memorandum ... I hereby rescind that memorandum.

These include the ability of commanders to consider, as appropriate, the individual immunization status of personnel in making deployment, assignment, and other operational decisions, including when vaccination is required for travel to, or entry into, a foreign nation.

Our men and women in uniform and their families have enough to worry about, basic necessities like food and housing shouldn't be among them.

Well, those are terms that I wouldn\'t use.

I don\'t know if they fielded those weapons, but they\'re testing those weapons.

I believe that future generations will look back on how we all serve the cause of freedom at this pivotal moment, they all take inspiration from the resilience and the valor of the Ukrainian people. They\'ll take heart from the way that nations of goodwill rallied against Putin\'s aggression.

Dwight Eisenhower said that Dwight Eisenhower and the alliance leaders had shared ' the same passionate hope of serving free humanity and of making it secure. ' We still share that hope. We still keep that flame burning.

We remain open to future diplomacy -- and fully prepared to deter and to defeat future aggression.

The concerns of the DPRK [ Democratic People\'s Republic of Korea ] are not addressed by the international community.

We remain focused on maintaining peace, stability and the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, but the PRC's moves threaten to undermine security, and stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.

When choosing between what is easy and what is right, let us live by the example of our fallen warriors, and when those values that we hold dear are put to the test, let us live by the ideals that they gave their lives to defend.

This unlawful and unprovoked aggression by Putin has the effect of changing the security architecture in the region for some time to come, we do expect that it will change our footprint. In terms of how much it changes the Defense Lloyd Austin contribution, that\'s left to be seen.

Antony Blinken want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can\'t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.

Our focus in the meeting was to talk about those things that would enable us to win the current fight and also build for tomorrow.

One of our goals has been to limit Russia\'s ability to do something like this again, as Defense Lloyd Austin said. That\'s why we are arming the Ukrainians with weapons and equipment to defend themselves from Russian attacks, and it\'s why we are using sanctions and export controls that are directly targeted at Russia\'s defense industry to undercut Russia\'s economic and military power to threaten and attack its neighbors.

The only solution to this is for Ukraine to win.