U.S. General Mark Milley demands to increase troops in Europe and give Ukraine lethal weapons

The United States should "seriously consider" granting Ukraine lethal weapons to counter the Russian aggression. Such opinion was expressed by U.S. Army General Mark Milley during a meeting of the Senate Committee on Armed Services.

According to Gen. Mark Milley, since 2008 the actions of Russia have been very aggressive, that is why he emphasized the need to provide Kyiv with lethal defensive weapons, Joinfo.ua informs referring to Radio Svoboda.

“They attacked and invaded Georgia. They seized Crimea. They attacked the territory of Ukraine. It arouses concern. From a military perspective, I would call Russia as a threat number one,” Mark Milley said.

Gen. also said he was in favor of a temporary increase in the number of U.S. ground forces in Europe to calm down the NATO allies and restrain Russian aggression.

Earlier, the U.S. refused to grant Ukraine lethal weapons because of concerns about the escalation of the conflict.

It should be recalled that after a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission in Brussels, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Lieutenant-General Stepan Poltorak, said NATO would reconsider the issue of granting Ukraine lethal weapons if Russia continued to violate the Minsk Agreement.