Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Tuesday, U.S. Congressman Mike Waltz (FL-6) pressed U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley on the United States military’s assistance to Ukraine, including sophisticated weapons and training, as well as extremism in the United States military, and parallels between Taiwan and Ukraine during the House Armed Services Committee hearing on the President's 2023 Budget.

During the their exchange, General Milley acknowledged that providing sophisticated military equipment earlier would have benefitted Ukraine in their defense of Russia’s invasion. Secretary Austin and General Miley also acknowledged the U.S. military is currently training Ukrainian military personnel on U.S. provided weapons systems.

Click here watch the full exchange.

Waltz pressed Secretary Austin on whether extremism in the military should be one of the top priorities for the Biden Administration moving forward given new data showing very few members of the U.S. military participate in any form of extremism. 

“A year ago, the rise of extremism, particularly white supremacy within the military, within our ranks was a top priority for you. In fact, it was your first memo,” said Waltz. “Yet, the Department released a study, this year, a year later, showing that one hundred members of the military participated in some type of extremism. That’s one hundred out of two and a half million. By my math, that shows that 99.996% of our military members have not participated in any form of extremism. So, with that data, now being data driven, is that still a top priority for you or can we move on?”

Secretary Austin went on to concur that “99.9% of our people are doing the right thing.”

Waltz added, “We’re seeing in polling a record drop in public confidence in the U.S. military. So, I think we have to be very careful about narratives… and keep those narratives data driven.”

Waltz also questioned Gen. Milley regarding U.S. training of Ukrainian resistance fighters on equipment being sent to Ukraine.

“We are absolutely providing more sophisticated equipment now to the Ukrainians, counter battery radar, and from my understanding, Puma UAVs in the latest package. Finally,” said Waltz. “I would argue this was belated, they should have had it last year, but we do have it on train. My concern is that the NATO Commander Gen. Walters testified that as a policy matter, we are not conducting any training on this new equipment. My question is why not?”

“We are not conducting training in Ukraine,” said Gen. Milley. However, Gen. Milley and Secretary Austin did confirm the U.S. is training Ukrainians on the equipment being sent to Ukraine. 

“We are not conducting training in Poland,” said Secretary Austin. He continued, “To use some of the gear, they have to have training and we are doing that.”

“Some of them are being trained right here in the United States,” said Gen. Milley of Ukrainian resistance troops.

Pointing to Gen. Walters’ testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Waltz asked Gen. Milley, “Gen. Walters also testified that the Ukrainians would have been more effective if they had Stingers pre-invasion, if they had them on day one, trained up and ready to go. Gen. Milley, do you disagree?”

“The more that they had prior to the invasion, the better off they would have been,” replied Gen. Milley.

“I do think there are a lot of parallels, Mr. Secretary, to our approach to Taiwan,” said Waltz. “I respectfully disagree with you there. There are a lot of parallels and there are a lot of things we should be learning. The effectiveness of sanctions as a deterrent and giving them the weapon systems they need pre-invasion, not having a tough, robust response post-invasion.”