War in Ukraine reaches stalemate, but Russia not ready for talks - Milley

This was stated by the former Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, who spoke at a Princeton University meeting dedicated to global challenges, Ukrinform reports, referring to VoA.

According to Milley, when neither party to a war is able to achieve its military goals, negotiations are needed, but Russia has shown no willingness to do so, and Putin himself is “not a trusted partner to negotiate with”.

"It is unlikely to achieve political decision through military means. Therefore both sides should recognize this and achieve an alternative method to solve their political problem, and that would be negotiation. Now the fact is you have to be realistic also – the Russians are clearly not ready to negotiate," Milley said, stressing that the decision to hold negotiations will be up to Ukraine.

However, in his opinion, there is no purely military solution to the war in Ukraine.

"Neither side is ready to negotiate and they are going to keep banging away at each other militarily unless something strange, unanticipated or unexpected happens on that battlefield," the American general believes.

He also believes that Putin intends to revive a sort of a Russian Empire, create a buffer zone along his borders, destroy the NATO alliance, and separate it from the United States.

Milley emphasized that providing Ukraine with the sufficient amount of weapons and boosting the Ukrainian Army to the level where they could push 300,000 Russian troops off their land may prove to be an unattainable military goal. According to his estimates, the Russian invasion forces deployed on the territory of Ukraine currently amounts to 200,000 troops.

The West must continue to support Ukraine and send military aid to the nation as Putin’s aggression cannot be rewarded, Milley believes, adding that it is necessary to help Ukraine continue the struggle and make sure Russia does not win," said the retired general.

In general, according to Milley's estimate, the Russians will lose more than 400,000 killed and wounded in Ukraine, as well as ground vehicles, tanks, and motorized infantry.

As reported by Ukrinform, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the total combat losses of Russian troops in Ukraine from February 24, 2022 to June 22, 2024 amount to about 533,090 people.