WASHINGTON, July 19. /TASS/. Strengthening the armed forces of Ukraine would take a few years and multibillion investments from the West, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said.

"Just do a quick math drill here. 10 F-16 [fighter jets would go] for $2 billion. So the Russians have hundreds of fourth and fifth generation airframes. So if they're going to try to match the Russians, one for one or even, you know, two to one, you're talking about a large number of aircraft. That's going to take years to train the pilots, years to do the maintenance and sustainment, years to generate that degree of financial support to do that," he said, adding that it would take "way more billions of dollars in has already been generated" by the West for supporting Ukraine.

Milley told a Pentagon news conference, held in the run-up to another session of the West’s multilateral contact group coordinating arms and equipment supplies to Ukraine, that boosting the capacities of the Ukrainian armed forces was not a priority at this stage.

"So the key thing is to focus on air defense, focus on the blocking and tackling sort of offensive-combined arms maneuver which is artillery - and both-long range and short-range artillery - and then get in your engineers and your minefield-breaching equipment. That's the kind of stuff they need," the US military official added

"That's what they want. That's what they're asking for. When I talked to [Ukrainian armed forces commander Valery] Zaluznhy that's what he's asking for," Milley added.