Biden’s speech tomorrow, we are
seeing this firming up of this
looking more like a u.s./russia
war.
>> Colonel, Beth just talked
about the symbolism here, and
there’s new military assistance,
but as far as we know it does
not include the item at the top
of Ukraine’s wish list, U.S.
Fighter jets.
Should the U.S. Be sending U.S.
Fighter jets?
>> I think at this point we
should, and I think if we are
doing something like this for
many months now, ideally we were
two months into the war when we
realized the Ukrainians were
going to stand fast and hold
territory and regain territory.
Since we have not done that, now
is as good as time as any to
catch up and provide the
training that the Ukrainian
pilots will need.
The short answer is yes to
planes like the f-16 and also
yes to longer range missiles.
>> Beth, we were just talking
about the military’s bloggers
inside Russia, criticizing
Russia, for lack of a better
word, allowing this to happen.
How do you think all of this
might affect Putin’s speech?
>> I think he’s going through
his speech right now overnight
with a red pen and will make
that language even tougher, even
more about this being a fight
between Russia and the U.S.
You know, I also expect that
there’s a high potential that we
will see another missile barrage
attacking Kyiv because these
folks on his right flank, on
Putin’s right flank are really
upset.
It was all over the Russian TV
today, pictures of Biden and
zelenskyy hugging and walking
around.
It’s infuriating them.
I think Putin has to show that
he’s a tough guy.
>> Colonel, to that point I was
in lviv in Ukraine last March
when president Biden was
speaking over the border in
Poland and Russia conducted air
strikes right before president
Biden was set to speak.
You had the sense they did it so
that all the cameras that we
were using could see their air
strikes.
How concerned should the U.S.
And should Ukraine be that this
visit might prompt more Russian
aggression?
>> I think quite concerned.
I think it’s really very likely,
as Beth mentioned, that they
will start to do something like
this.
You know, they have a tendency
to be very symbolic in their
actions and their military
actions tend to be more
symbolically oriented anyways
than ours do.
It becomes a clear need, a clear
imperative for the Ukrainians to
be prepared for something like
this, and to also prepare their
population that these attacks on
the infrastructure and other
military installations will
continue at this point and will
get fairly bad.
>> One crucial meeting today was
Joe Biden and zelenskyy, but
inside Russia China’s top
diplomat met with Russian
officials, and U.S. Officials
are concerned that China will
provide lethal military aid to
Russia.
How much of a concern should
that be and what would that do
to U.S. And China relations?
>> Well, u.s./china relations
are at a 40-year low already.
I think now the effort from both
sides coming out of Bali was to
put guardrails on and keep the
wheels from falling off the bus.
I think that that would be just
devastating.
You know, this is really another
bold move by the Biden
administration to use
intelligence, not just keep it
hidden but to use it in order to
constrain the actions of our
adversaries.
They did it effectively against
Russia, and I think this will be
affective against China.
What Russia is trying to do is
have its cake and eat it too,
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