During a House Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA) questioned General Christopher G. Cavoli, the Commander of the U.S. European Command, about a potential resolution in the Ukraine-Russia war.
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00:00Thank you Mr. Chairman. First, I want to pass on my condolences to you, the entire
00:11UConn family and the families of the fallen four dog-faced soldiers from 3rd ID. That's
00:19a tremendous loss. Next, I want to say, as a retired Army officer myself, I want to congratulate
00:27you on your upcoming retirement and recommend avoiding electoral politics if you want peace
00:32and quiet. Right now our adversaries are challenging the United States interests around the globe
00:39and Russia's continued illegal war in Ukraine is far from over. In your written testimony
00:45you focused on the chronic threat that Russia poses to the United States and the importance
00:49of land deterrence and it's been a really persistent threat for decades now in one iteration or
00:54another from the Soviet Union to the present. General Cavoli, how many troops do we need
00:59in Europe to deter Russia at its current end strength?
01:03Sir, our current capacity is deterring Russia right now. Of course, the answer to that question
01:13always depends on where Russia goes in the future, right? How do they configure themselves?
01:18Where do they place themselves? What are their intentions? For what we're doing right now, it's
01:22obviously working, but they're quite occupied elsewhere. I would point out I wouldn't measure
01:28it also strictly by end strength, the numbers of human beings. It really comes down to what
01:33capabilities are we able to bring to bear, how quickly, and how does that nest in to the
01:41alliance's efforts which are evolving and increasing. So over time I would expect our contribution to
01:49drop. It's going to take some time, however. So I want to address the the issue that my
01:55colleague from Louisiana just just discussed and kind of part of what victory looks like is a free and
02:03sovereign and secure Ukraine. And so so far that has come at no cost in American lives as far as uniformed service members,
02:11although there have been obviously many volunteers that have gone over and felt the need
02:15the need was great and sacrificed tremendously. In the context of of my definition and kind of how you see victory,
02:27is victory for Ukraine possible? Congressman, not losing is definitely possible. And I think that's the first step.
02:39So if we're talking about a free, secure, sovereign Ukraine, the actions that we've taken so far, I mean, they've not lost yet, but how do we take it to the next level? If we want to get a meaningful peace that that provides for a free, sovereign, secure Ukraine, what do we need to do in addition to what we've done so far?
03:01Well, I think there's a military contribution to that, sir, of course, but I think that the principal questions would probably be outside of my outside of my lane.
03:13Well, I'm talking in your in your purview and briefly, obviously, do we need to provide a more stuff?
03:19We we need to continue to provide them the defensive mechanisms to prevent the heinous attacks that we provide more intelligence.
03:28Intelligence, air defense, weapons systems, and then artillery systems and ammunition. Those are always the important things that they need.
03:38And those will pressure Russia to come to the negotiating table in a more balanced fashion to achieve the victory that I described, which is a free, secure and sovereign Ukraine.
03:52Those could be a contributor to that effort.
03:55Okay.
03:56I want to transition a little bit and talk about you mentioned your relationships going back decades with your counterparts in different co-coms, General Carrillo, for instance.
04:06There are other relationships that, for instance, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I'm sure you've known him, you've worked with him, closely coordinate with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with the functional combatant commanders like Cybercom,
04:20with the senior advisor to NATO, those folks have all been fired in the last couple of months. Is that correct?
04:33Yes, sir.
04:34Yeah.
04:35And so have you ever seen this type of sort of chaos or sort of lack of coordination in your 38 years?
04:49Have you ever had to deal with that kind of shuffling of personnel that are your counterparts that help enable your mission?
04:57I have had to deal with shufflings and things like that before. Yes, sir.
05:04The gentleman's time has expired.