Austin on counteroffensive: Ukraine has much of capability to succeed

He said this on Tuesday in a speech at the U.S. Department of State after an extended meeting with his Philippines colleagues, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“I just spoke with my counterpart in Ukraine today, Minister Oleksiy Reznikov. And we talked about a number of issues, but – as we typically do,” he said.

Asked how the latest leak of Pentagon documents might affect Ukraine's plans for a counteroffensive, Austin expressed confidence that the Ukrainian leadership remains focused on the task.

“And I have every confidence that they will do what good leaders, great leaders do,” he said.

Austin noted that the Ukrainian side has “a great plan” to start active operations, but only President Zelensky and his leadership really know the full details of that plan.

“They [Ukrainians] have much of the capability that they need to continue to be successful. We’ve trained an enormous number of troops.  We have provided a substantial number of platforms,” he said.

Therefore, according to him, in Ukraine, they feel they are “in a pretty good position.”

“And we’ll stay focused on continuing to generate security assistance capability so that they can continue to be successful whenever they choose to take up offensive operations,” Austin said.

He also officially confirmed that the next round of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting would take place at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany on April 21, noting that the United States stays connected with their allies and partners.