Ashton Carter served as US secretary of defense from 2015 to 2017
Ashton Carter, who served as Secretary of Defense under former US President Barack Obama, has passed away aged 68. Carter oversaw the arming of Ukraine and the US intervention in Syria, and welcomed transgender troops to the US military.
Carter’s family announced his death on Tuesday, saying that the former Pentagon chief suffered a heart attack the night before. He leaves behind a wife and two children.
Carter served as Obama’s second secretary of defense, taking over from Chuck Hagel in 2015 and holding the post until Jim Mattis was appointed by Donald Trump in 2017.
With a US-backed coup having ousted Ukraine’s democratically-elected president Viktor Yanukovich a year earlier, Carter promised from the outset of his tenure to increase US military aid to Yanukovich’s pro-Western replacement, Pyotr Poroshenko. With the US sending more than a billion dollars to Kiev during his time in charge, Carter said in 2019 that this aid “was critical” in rebuilding Ukraine’s armed forces.
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