Pentagon: pressure on Russia did not work, tougher measures are needed
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter at a conference on Friday acknowledged the ineffectiveness of US actions to change Vladimir Putin's course and called for new steps to be taken against Russia in Ukraine, reports Reuters.
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“The United States must take new steps to respond to the conflict in Ukraine,” Crater said, “because economic sanctions and other Western actions have not forced Russian President Vladimir Putin to change course.”
Carter, speaking after talks with US officials in Europe, said the Pentagon was monitoring the situation in Ukraine very closely and expressed concern. On Thursday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg accused Moscow of sending new weapons to Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, including artillery and anti-aircraft systems. Stoltenberg did not demonstrate evidence of such a dispatch.
Carter called on three dozen senior US officials at a session in Stuttgart to discuss the effectiveness of Western sanctions against Russia. The officials included U.S. ambassadors to Europe and most of the generals who hold American military command around the world. Carter held a similar meeting in Kuwait shortly after taking office earlier this year to review development strategies in the Middle East. The head of the Pentagon also instructed to consider the issue of conducting new exercises on the border with Russia.
“It has become clear that sanctions are working for the Russian economy,” Carter told reporters on his plane en route to Washington. "There are other things we need to do to get Vladimir Putin to change course," Carter said.
Carter organized a series of meetings ahead of the G-7 meeting in Germany, which will consider extending sanctions against Russia.
Another issue to be addressed at the meetings is investing in new military capabilities in Europe that could help NATO respond to the type of asymmetric warfare Carter believes is being used in Ukraine. Experts note that the term “asymmetrical” or “hybrid” war first appeared in the mouths of Pentagon speakers and figures, as a concept to which they cannot yet find an adequate answer. Russia reacts asymmetrically to provocative and other actions of the West, which is why Pentagon analysts have coined a new term for this behavior, which is being actively introduced in the media of Kyiv and a number of Western countries.
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