Milley Once Called for Ukraine to Negotiate but Backtracked…Now Some Wish He Defended Position

Joint Chiefs of Staff head faced swift backlash in Washington last November when he said Ukraine may have achieved all that could have been hoped against Russia

Last November, Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, jolted Washington when he agreed with us and said Ukraine may want to consider peace negotiations.

The Trends Journal has called for Ukraine to negotiate for a peaceful settlement since war broke out with Russia, not because we agree with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade, but because Kyiv has no chance of winning and it would be in the best interest of Ukrainians to get along with their superpower neighbor. 

Last November, Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, jolted Washington when he agreed with us and said Ukraine may want to consider peace negotiations. 

“We’ve seen the Ukrainian military fight the Russian military to a standstill. Now, what the future holds is not known with any degree of certainty, but we think there are some possibilities here for some diplomatic solutions,” he said in an interview with CNBC. 

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His comments were remarkable at the time, because the Biden administration promoted only war up until that point, and Milley seemed like a powerful voice who could effect change. 

But he did a quick about-face after facing severe backlash from pro-war Washington think tanks and politicians. He later changed his tune and said Russia already lost the conflict. 

“They’ve lost strategically, they’ve lost operationally and, I repeat, they’ve lost tactically,” he said. “What they’ve tried to do, they’ve failed at. The strategic reframing of their objectives, of their illegal invasion, have all failed, every single one of them.” 

Col. Douglas MacGregor, who The Trends Journal has interviewed, has criticized these kinds of comments from Washington and said they hurt the administration’s credibility.  

“General Milley has made it very clear that he’s aligned with the left, he is part of this administration, he’s going to say whatever they want him to say,” MacGregor said, according to RT. 

But now there are individuals in Washington who wished Milley defended his initial comments. 

Politico ran an article on Friday titled: “Milley Had a Point.” 

Politico quoted one U.S. official, “who didn’t want to run afoul of the administration by offering real views on the record, said the realities of the counteroffensive are sinking in around Washington.” 

“We may have missed a window to push for earlier talks,” the official said. The official said, “Milley had a point.” 

The Kremlin has insisted since the start of the operation that it will achieve its goals, which include deNazification and demilitarizing the country. Russian forces now control about 20 percent of Ukraine since their invasion. Moscow also wants assurances that Ukraine will remain neutral and not join NATO. 

The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the U.S. of carrying out a “total hybrid war” and putting the two countries on a direct path to a confrontation over its historic support for Ukraine to weaken Russia. 

Its Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the U.S.’s military support for Ukraine has brought on an unprecedented crisis that resulted in no room for diplomacy.