November 16, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said that the Ukrainians’ aim of “militarily kicking the Russians physically out of Ukraine is a very difficult task” and one that is not likely to be accomplished “anytime soon.”

Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, Milley said Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine, and he noted that Kherson and Kharkiv, which the Ukrainians have reclaimed “are relatively small compared to the whole.”

Milley caveated by saying that “politically, there may be a political solution where politically the Russians withdraw.”

CNN has reported on the divisions in the Biden administration as Milley has seemed to push for a more urgent diplomatic outcome, and the Biden administration has had to work to reassure the Ukrainian government, outside experts, and former US officials that it will not push Ukraine to imminently seek negotiations with Russia after comments Milley made last week.

Poland has said that investigations at the site where a missile landed will continue to be a joint operation with the United States.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded that Ukrainian experts be allowed access.

American investigators are now working at the site, Polish President Andrzej Duda said Wednesday.

"Since President Biden declared support in a conversation with me yesterday, I accepted this support, so this investigation can be said to be conducted jointly by us and the American side or by the North Atlantic Alliance and us," he said.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also confirmed that US experts are on the ground in Poland assisting with the Polish investigation.

Zelensky said Wednesday in a meeting with Ukrainian media that a group of Ukrainian experts must be allowed access to the site.

He also said he wanted to see "the number on the missile, because all missiles have numbers on them." And he said that Ukrainian representatives should be invited to a virtual NATO meeting regarding the incident.

Polish President Andrzej Duda met with CIA Director Bill Burns in Warsaw Wednesday after an incident in eastern Poland that left two people dead, according to Poland’s National Security Bureau chief, Jacek Siewiera.

“In the evening, the President @AndrzejDuda spoke with the head of the CIA, William Burns, who is in Warsaw after his visits to Ankara and Kiev,” Siewera wrote in a post on Twitter sharing a picture of the meeting.

He added that the general security situation as well as the context of the recent events were discussed. “Lots of work on the PL-US line today.”

A US official told CNN that Burns had previously scheduled meetings with Polish officials including Duda. They discussed the current situation and the director reaffirmed the US commitment to providing support to Ukraine and thanked Poland for its continued partnerships including in intelligence channels, according to the official.

Poland has said that it will continue to jointly investigate with the US the site where a missile landed on Tuesday.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley attempted to speak with his Russian counterpart Gen. Valery Gerasimov on Tuesday following the missile that fell in Poland, but the attempts were not successful, Milley said during a press conference at the Pentagon on Wednesday.

Milley spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart, his Polish counterpart and other chiefs of defense in Europe after the explosion in Poland yesterday, he said.

“My staff was unsuccessful in getting me linked up with General Gerasimov,” Milley said.

“I did talk to my Ukrainian counterpart, Gen. [Valerii] Zaluzhny — talked to him several times in fact — also Polish counterpart and several other (chiefs of defense) in Europe,” he added.

#Poland##

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley says Russia has failed "every single" objective in its war against Ukraine.

“Russians have failed every single time. They’ve lost strategically, they’ve lost operationally and, I repeat, they lost tactically. What they’ve tried to do, they failed at,” Milley said Wednesday at a press conference with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. “The strategic reframing of their objectives, of their illegal invasion, have all failed, every single one of them.”

Milley listed Russia’s failure to “overrun all of Ukraine” at the start of the war as well as after their refocus on the Donbas region and the capture of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

“Across the entire frontline trace of some 900 or so kilometers, the Ukrainians have achieved success after success after success, and the Russians have failed every single time,” said Milley.

The US has seen no information so far that contradicts Polish President Andrzej Duda’s “preliminary assessment” that the explosion in Poland yesterday that left two dead “was most likely the result of a Ukrainian defense missile,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said at a press conference at the Pentagon on Wednesday. 

“Whatever the final conclusions may be, the world knows that Russia bears ultimately responsibility for this incident,” Austin added. 

The US has “full confidence” in the Polish government’s investigation into it, Austin said.

“They’ve been conducting that investigation in a professional and deliberate manner, and so we won’t get ahead of their work. We’re going to stay in close touch with our Polish counterparts as well as with our NATO allies and other valued partners,” Austin said. 

The explosion in Poland and Russia’s continued attacks against civilian infrastructure are “another reminder of the recklessness of Russia’s war of choice,” Austin said.

The United States said it has "full confidence" in the Polish investigation into the missile that killed two people near the country's border with Ukraine.

The "party ultimately responsible" for the incident is Russia for its ongoing invasion, National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a written statement Wednesday. 

"We have full confidence in the Polish government’s investigation of the explosion near their border with Ukraine, and we commend them for the professional and deliberate manner in which they are conducting it," Watson wrote.

Earlier Wednesday, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that the missile that hit his country Tuesday was "probably an accident" from Ukraine's air defenses and that "there is no indication that this was an intentional attack on Poland." 

"That said, whatever the final conclusions may be, it is clear that the party ultimately responsible for this tragic incident is Russia, which launched a barrage of missiles on Ukraine specifically intended to target civilian infrastructure. Ukraine had — and has — every right to defend itself," Watson said.

The Ukrainian Security Service (the SBU) says it has discovered another "torture chamber" allegedly used by Russian forces during the occupation of Kherson.

The Russians had "kept local patriots who refused to cooperate with the enemy in inhuman conditions," the SBU said.

"Kherson residents were interrogated and brutally tortured. During the inspection of the torture chamber, law enforcement officers found items that directly indicate signs of torture." 

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told CNN that NATO allies must “keep a cool head” in light of Tuesday’s missile incident in Poland that left two people dead.

“I think we really have to keep a cool head, knowing there might be a spillover effect, especially to those countries that are very close [to Ukraine],” Kallas told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an interview Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that "materials collected by our services and provided by our allies most probably indicate that the explosion in Przewodów, in eastern Poland, was caused by the shooting down and destruction of a Russian missile." Polish President Andrzej Duda said that the missile was "probably an accident" from Ukraine's air defenses.

Russia blamed Ukraine's air defense system for the missile explosion and said there was "a deliberate provocation in order to escalate the situation." 

Estonian leader Kallas told Amanpour that NATO allies should see the bigger picture when it comes to the incident. 

“Of course, Russia wants to concentrate on this one incident, but the problem is Russia is waging a full-scale war in Ukraine,” the Estonian prime minister told CNN.

“Yesterday, they did [their] biggest rocket attacks so far, hitting civilian infrastructure, hitting civilians everywhere, trying to make Ukraine really run out of electricity, bombing the electricity grid so it will be dark and very cold. This is the reason we’re talking about this," Kallas said about Russian missiles striking across the country on Tuesday.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that one of NATO's top priorities at the moment is to provide more air defense systems to Ukraine.

Kallas told Amanpour that “air defense, all the equipment that we have, must be given to Ukraine so they can defend themselves.”

“I can’t look into their warehouses, and see what they [NATO members] actually have, but I can call on the leaders of NATO allies who have more, and say ‘please look to your storage, look to your warehouses, find things that you have, do agreements with [the] private sector who is developing equipment,' so that we can send top equipment to Ukraine and end this war once and for all,” Kallas said.