• Join Puck

    Directly Supporting Authors

    A new economic model in which writers are also partners in the business.

    Personalized Subscriptions

    Customize your settings to receive the newsletters you want from the authors you follow.

    Stay in the Know

    Connect directly with Puck talent through email and exclusive events.

  • What is puck? Newsletters Authors Podcasts Events Gift Puck Careers

The Milley Doctrine

Onboard a flight to Ramstein Air Base, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs shares his “realist” view of war in Ukraine, Russia’s military failures, and the challenges still to come.

General Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
General Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Julia Ioffe
April 26, 2023

At dawn last Thursday, I boarded General Mark Milley’s plane at Joint Base Andrews, along with the Chairman’s staff, a reporter from the A.F.P., and the voluble Chairman himself. Our destination was Ramstein Air Base, in Germany, for the eleventh meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of fifty or so countries, led by the U.S., that have been providing military assistance to Ukraine. They meet once a month or so to coordinate who’s giving what—and to put the screws on the holdouts.