“He will reduce US forces in Europe with the intent that Europe will take a greater responsibility for its own defense,” said Jones. “Ukraine is essential to that and I think that’s not always appreciated in our own discussions and our own debate here in the United States. Ukraine has almost a million people under arms now. During the course of this war they have supercharged their defense industrial base and now they are producing and they have the capability to producing far more, but for the whole defense of Europe, for Europe to be strong and for US forces at an appropriate pace of decline, Ukraine’s participation of that is essential.”
