Ukraine can win war with Russia: U.S. defense secretary

STORY: Austin hosted the event at Ramstein Air Base following a trip to Kyiv where he pledged additional military support to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's war effort.

"Your resistance has brought inspiration to the free world," Austin said, as he denounced Russia's invasion of Ukraine as "indefensible... Ukraine clearly believes that it can win, and so does everyone here".

Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more and raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the United States - by far the world's two biggest nuclear powers.

Putin says the "special military operation" in Ukraine is necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Ukraine was guilty of the genocide of Russian-speaking people.

Ukraine says it is fighting a land grab by Russia and that Putin's accusations of genocide are nonsense.