US mission in Ukraine revealed — and it's not necessarily Russia's defeat

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Making sure Ukraine can defend itself is our mission: Kirby

Pentagon press secretary provides insight on the U.S. helping Ukraine during the war with Russia on 'The Story.'

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby during an appearance Friday on "The Story" was asked exactly what the U.S. mission was in Ukraine and what success would look like in officials' eyes. 

JOHN KIRBY: I'll tell you very clearly what the Pentagon and the Department of Defense is focused on, and it's really two things. One is continuing to make sure that Ukraine can defend itself, and they are defending themselves. And as we just talked about a few minutes ago, we're helping them do that, and we're trying to do that as fast as possible. 

Number two: Making sure that NATO can defend itself, and that's why the president has ordered additional troops over to Europe. That's why we repositioned troops inside Europe to elsewhere on NATO's eastern flank. We're making sure that we can make positive that we can defend NATO's territory, that we're making it clear to Mr. Putin and to our allies how seriously we take our Article 5 commitments under the NATO's treaty. …

Our mission is to make sure Ukraine can continue to defend itself. And look, Mr. Putin has a lot of options available to him. We've all seen the military options that he so recklessly is willing to use against the Ukrainian people, people who pose no threat to him or to the Russian people. The other option he has available to him is diplomacy. He could deescalate this right now. This is a war of his choice …

Success looks like an invasion that is stopped and reversed and deescalated; that's what success looks like here. Success is a free and independent sovereign Ukraine, which it is now and was before this invasion.

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