Ladies and gentlemen, this is a crucial moment. Russia is regrouping, recruiting, and trying to re-equip. This is not a moment to slow down. It's a t… - Lloyd Austin

Some 50 countries have stepped up to help Ukraine defend itself and deter future threats. When Putin launched his reckless and unprovoked invasion 11 months ago, he thought that Ukraine would just collapse. And he thought that the world would just look away. But Putin didn't count on the courage of the Ukrainian people. And he didn't count on the skill of the Ukrainian military. And he didn't count on you — on everyone on-screen and around this table. But we need to keep up our momentum and resolve. And we need to dig even deeper. This is a decisive moment for Ukraine, in a decisive decade for the world. So make no mistake. We will support Ukraine's self-defense for as long as it takes. Now, we know that Russia remains bent on aggression and conquest. And Russian forces have increased their horrific attacks, killing many innocent Ukrainians.

We now know that there was no connection between Mr. Ahmadi and ISIS-Khorasan, that his activities on that day were completely harmless and not at all related to the imminent threat we believed we faced, and that Mr. Ahmadi was just as innocent a victim as were the others tragically killed. (U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement Friday)

We want to see Ukraine remain a sovereign country, a democratic country able to protect its sovereign territory. We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine. So it has already lost a lot of military capability, and a lot of its troops, quite frankly. And we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability. We want to see the international community more united, especially NATO, and we’re seeing that, and that’s based upon the hard work of, number one, President Biden, but also our Allies and partners who have willingly leaned into this with us as we’ve imposed sanctions and as we’ve moved very rapidly to demonstrate that we’re going to defend every inch of NATO.