Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin declined to say whether he believes Russia's war in Ukraine will continue this time next year.

The secretary, who traveled to Brussels this week to meet with dozens of his counterparts in NATO and outside the alliance to discuss their continued assistance to Ukraine, told NBC News that "you should never predict an outcome of a fight" when asked if he feels "confident" the two sides could come to the negotiating table to end the war in a matter of months or even a year.

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"But what you should do is do everything that you can to shape the fight so that there is a possibility of success, and we think we're going to do that we're going to give the Ukrainians everything that they need to be successful and to hopefully change the dynamics on the battlefield. That's what we're looking to do," he explained.

Following Austin's meeting on Tuesday with roughly 50 defense ministers who attended the ninth convening of the Defense Contact Group, he highlighted the "significant new air defense donations," which will be vital to Ukraine's success in their upcoming counteroffensive.

"All the partners in the Ukraine defense contact group have been working hard to ensure that they have the armored capability, the fires of sustainment to be able to be effective in creating the effects on the battlefield that they want to create," he added. "And so we believe that there'll be a window of opportunity for them to exercise initiative and then change or continue to create the right conditions on the battlefield there."

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Austin said this week that Russia's main strength as it too looks to restart its offensive is the manpower it possesses and its willingness to expend those lives, despite poor training.

"Russia continues to pour large numbers of additional people into the fight," he explained. "And those people are ill-trained and ill-equipped, and because of that, we see them incurring a lot of casualties. And we'll probably continue to see that going forward. That's their strength. They have a lot of people."