Putin Won’t Stop at Ukraine, Chair of Joint Chiefs of Staff Says

The remarks came during a Senate hearing on U.S. military posture and threats posed by U.S. rivals.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine testifies during a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington on June 11, 2025. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators on June 11 that he does not believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin would stop at Ukraine if he succeeded in conquering the country.

Caine made the comment during testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, where he appeared alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to address U.S. military posture and global threats.

When Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked whether he believed that Putin would halt his aggression at Ukraine’s borders, Caine said, “I don’t think he is.”

Hegseth, who was asked the same question, responded more cautiously: “Remains to be seen.”

Graham, a vocal critic of the Kremlin, dismissed Hegseth’s answer.

“It doesn’t remain to be seen,” he said. “[Putin] tells everybody around what he wants to do.”

Graham pointed to Russia’s stockpiling of weapons far beyond what is needed for the war in Ukraine.

Drawing a parallel to the lead-up to World War II, he said the West must take autocrats at their word. Hitler said he wanted to “kill all the Jews,” he said, arguing that Western leaders “miscalculated” and did not think that he was serious, missing an opportunity to act early and potentially head off the Holocaust.

“The danger of that is that like 50 million people get killed,” Graham said. “So let’s don’t [sic] do that now.”

The South Carolina Republican also warned that Iran’s threats to destroy Israel should be taken seriously. He pointed to Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons—something he said the United States must stop.

“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon because they’ll use it,” Graham said. “They’re homicidal maniacs—religious Nazis.”

Turning to broader global threats, he described China as an “expansionist power” ready to take Taiwan unless deterred and warned that Russia would “dismember Ukraine and keep going” if the United States did not stop it.

Graham has championed severe sanctions against Russia and recently introduced bipartisan legislation with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to impose a 500 percent tariff on goods from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium, and other exports. The bill has more than 80 co-sponsors in the Senate, suggesting that it could override a presidential veto.

At the June 11 hearing, he urged passage of the bill, saying it would help “grind Putin’s war machine to a halt” while sending a strong deterrent message to China and Iran.

President Donald Trump, who has been trying to broker an end to the Russia–Ukraine war, has remained noncommittal on Graham’s sanctions bill, telling reporters at the end of May that he needs to review it.

Trump recently spoke with Putin about the conflict in a phone call that lasted more than an hour but yielded no tangible progress toward a cease-fire.

“We discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.”

Later, Trump told reporters at the White House that he believes that Russia and Ukraine may not be serious about pursuing peace at this time, comparing them to brawling children who do not want to be pulled apart until they have exhausted their fury.

Trump said he relayed the analogy to Putin when the two spoke on the phone.

“I said, ‘President, maybe you’re going to have to keep fighting and suffering a lot,’ because both sides are suffering before you pull them apart, before they’re able to be pulled apart,“ Trump said. ”You see [it] in hockey; you see it in sports. The referees let them go for a couple of seconds, let them go for a little while before you pull them apart.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected Trump’s comparison.

“We are not kids with Putin at the playground in the park,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with ABC, describing the Russian president as “a murderer who came to this park to kill the kids.”

The Kremlin has confirmed that discussions are underway to arrange a new round of talks between Russian and U.S. officials aimed at improving bilateral relations.

Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Alexander Darchiev, told state media that a meeting is expected “very soon,” following earlier rounds held in neutral countries. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said preparations are ongoing but cautioned that numerous unresolved issues remain.

“Dialogue is continuing,” Peskov told reporters on June 11. “Everything is being carried out by diplomats within the framework of understanding reached between President Putin and President Trump. At the same time, there are a lot of sticking points.

“One can hardly hope for a fast resolution.”

While Zelenskyy has endorsed Trump’s call for an unconditional cease-fire, Putin has not, issuing shifting demands.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance recently told European defense leaders that Putin is “asking for too much.” He later said he believes that Putin lacks an exit strategy from the war.