前大使：俄袭基辅是纯粹恐怖与战争罪行

We're looking forward to getting your take on what's happening on the ground in Ukraine. But I'm first. We'd love to hear your reaction to this trip that the CIA director made to Moscow. It's something we don't see very often these days. And I'm wondering if you think Vladimir Putin heard the message. Well, this means that the reports we had first coming from Baltic intelligence Services and then from our own intelligence services over the past few weeks, that Putin is seriously considering some form of kinetic activity, some sort of military strike on the Baltic states or maybe other NATO members in Eastern Europe is real, and then the administration takes it very seriously.

Rykov understands that Moscow considers us to be its principal adversary, and a strike against those states is a strike against us. So I welcome him going to Moscow to tell him not to do it. Excuse me if we're potentially pointed toward escalation here. There was a time where it felt like we may be making progress. The U.S. had committed to firm security guarantees, for example, for Ukraine. After months of saying that those guarantees should instead be implicit.

Where do we stand in this negotiating process? After what we're months of talks, are we really back to square one? Um, the talks were more open by the end of last year. Um, you're right that President Trump began to move within the negotiations towards a position of greater strength, as represented by progress on security guarantees. Um, and, uh, but represented by the the sanctions he put on Rosneft and Lukoil, two major Russian hydrocarbon firms, at the end of October.

Mhm. But then, um, we also offered some ideas which made no sense to my judgment, um, either for Ukraine, but especially for the United States, like Ukraine handing to Russia as a gift, um, strategic territory in western Donbas that the Russian army has been unable to do. So the, the the push made by the administration has not been one consistently of peace through strength. But Radcliffe again, is a very serious man, understands the danger that Moscow's aggressive policy represents to the United States.

So his visit to Moscow to say knock it off is a plus, in my judgment. There's some pretty terrifying reporting by the Wall Street Journal this morning on the status of the war between Russia and Ukraine, described as entering a new phase ambassador with expanded aerial arsenals and inadequate air defenses. Both sides bludgeoning each other and what they call a bare knuckle fight, causing a widening swath of destruction and a rising civilian toll.

How long can this go on for? Well, I think that report is only basically correct. It's inadequate though. Okay. What's happening? Why? They're right about the difficulty of Ukraine to stop Russian ballistic missiles, because they don't have many of our Patriot interceptor missiles, which are the only ones that work for that. And the Russians were not able to stop Ukrainian drones because their territory is vast. But Russia is trying to terrorize the Ukrainian public by targeting civilians.

Ukraine is the war. The Ukraine is striking at strategic targets, hydrocarbon facilities, because without oil and gas, the Russian war machine would run, going to munitions plants, going after key um transportation routes. So Ukraine strikes are weakening Russia's ability to conduct the war. Russia's strikes are merely killing civilians. That's the bludgeoning. That's the brutality. Yeah. Mhm. If we continue on this, can you put into context the options left on the table for Ukraine when it comes to bolstering their own defense, uh, weapons stockpile and base.

You mentioned those Patriot missiles. It was back at the G20 when President Trump had suggested that there was a deal to grant Ukraine the general license to build these on their own. But at this point, it doesn't seem like that deal is going to come to fruition. Well, sadly, what you're saying is true. Um, President Trump said when he met with Zelenskyy at the Ankara NATO summit in, I don't know, like the 10th of July, that he would license Ukraine to do it, the two to build those missiles, which would take time, but it would be a strong step in the right direction for us, for Ukraine, for NATO.

And he said he saw Zelensky in the Oval Office two weeks after that. And he spoke as if that's what the deal was. But then two days later or three days later, the president said, no, I only said I was going to consider it. So here he was, being inconsistent in ways not good for Ukraine's security, but also not good for American security. Giving Ukraine that capability around the lights, things in them will increase the production of Patriot interceptor missiles, which not only Ukraine needs, but the United States needs.

Our allies and partners in around the Persian Gulf needed NATO needs. So this would be the smart move. It would be good to see. What did you think when Vladimir Putin talked about Ukraine opening Pandora's Box last week, when he was asked about some of the attacks that Russia has experienced from Kiev. He said, we'll be ready to get a blow back on your most sensitive sectors of the economy. He will use cold as a weapon again this winter, right?

Oh, no doubt about look, Putin has been doing this. He's been going after Ukrainian infrastructure since the successful Ukrainian counteroffensive in the late summer and early fall of 2022. So this is nothing new. Putin has no new tactics that he has been putting into place. All he does is smack the Ukrainian economy and Ukrainian civilians. Whereas the Ukrainian drone offensive we've seen since roughly late March, early April has been devastating to Moscow's production of oil and gas, to its ability to supply its own troops at the front to its ability to supply Crimea, which is now quasi isolated.

All of those things have clear strategic and military value. Putin's strikes only murders Ukrainian civilians. But I just came from Kiev. I was there for three and a half days. While I was there, there were many, many very senior European officials. So the Russians did not bomb Kiev. But over the last 18 hours, they've been bombing the heck out of Ukrainian civilians, especially in Kiev. And so scores of civilians have died.

It's pure terror. It's pure war crimes. Mhm. We do want to continue the conversation related to oil. And I want to bring you a red head that's crossing the Bloomberg terminal right now. Axios reporting that the Trump administration is in talks with Venezuela's interim government about taking an ownership stake in the country's enormous oil resources. That's according to two U.S. officials speaking with Axios. This is a historic deal which could more than double the U.S. oil reserves by drawing on the country that has the world's largest proven reserves.

Let's stick on the idea of oil on sanctions. I want to get your thoughts here about economic pressure very quickly. We're watching the white House threaten economic pressure against Iran. How effective has sanctions and secondary sanctions been when it comes to the conflict with Russia and Ukraine? Um, they've been effective. They have taken a percentage point or two off the Russian economy over the years. Uh, but not effective to the point where Putin says, okay, I'm going to make a just peace or I'm going to make even a stable peace.

Trump has offered Putin favorable terms for a stable peace, terms which Ukraine would be willing to accept, but the Russians would refuse each and every one of those proposals because whose aim is political control of Ukraine. And that's not Trump. Trump wants a stable peace, and Ukraine wants to be a sovereign country not living under the Russian blue wall with Russian war.