US Defense Secretary will not go to Brussels due to hospitalisation, Ukraine Defence Contact Group will meet online

Due to an urgent hospitalisation, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will be unable to attend the NATO defence ministers' meeting and the Ukraine Defenсe Contact Group meeting (Ramstein format) in Brussels this week.

Source: European Pravda with reference to a source in Pentagon also quoted by Reuters and CNN

Details: According to an anonymous official, Austin's hospitalisation last weekend forced him to cancel his trip to Brussels and delegate his authority to Deputy Kathleen Hicks.

The Ramstein meeting, which was scheduled to take place on 14 February alongside the NATO defence ministers' meeting, will now take place online, according to the source in the Pentagon.

The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where Austin was admitted, could not predict how long he would be in the hospital, but emphasised that his current bladder problem will not affect his expected recovery from cancer.

Austin has been in hospital since 1 January due to complications from surgery. His prostate cancer diagnosis was announced by Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Following that, there was a lot of attention to the hospitalisation of the Pentagon's top brass in the United States because Biden and senior White House officials had no idea Austin was in hospital at first.

Lloyd Austin was discharged from hospital on 15 January and returned to the Pentagon on 29 January.

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