Retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman said that Russia is struggling with securing successes in Ukraine as it continues to use “failed” strategies to fight Ukrainian forces in the ongoing invasion.
“The Russians are scrambling to do whatever they can to snatch victory… [in Ukraine],” said Vindman during an interview on The AI Franken Podcast that was posted Sunday to Twitter. “And they cannot win on the battlefields in Ukraine. The Ukrainian armed forces are too formidable.”
Vindman added that Russian President Vladimir Putin is still trying to achieve his country’s goals in Ukraine by pushing against the Ukrainian population in an effort to “break their will to fight.” He called that strategy “terrible” as Ukrainians “will not fold.”
“Ukrainians will continue to support the military,” said the retired lieutenant colonel, who served as the former director for European affairs for the United States National Security Council.
Vindman said that there is “87 percent, 90 percent support” for continuing to liberate Ukrainians in Russian-occupied territories. Though he didn’t mention the source of the percentage figure, it seems that he was referring to a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology that found 87 percent of Ukrainians oppose the idea of their country giving away any territory regardless of how long the war would last.
The survey, which was cited by Reuters, polled 2,000 people between September 7 and 13. The poll also showed that 57 percent of ethnic Russians in Ukraine and 85 percent of Russian-speaking ethnic Ukrainians are against giving up land to Moscow. However, only 24 percent of ethnic Russians support doing so in order to bring peace.
“So this is a failed strategy,” Vindman said of Putin’s war approach, which includes targeting the Ukrainian population. “That’s not going to really even nudge the Ukrainians towards negotiations, but that’s what they [Russians] settled on, as they have many times throughout this war continue to make catastrophic mistakes.”
Ukrainian forces have recently repelled Russian offensives near the city of Bakhmut, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) that was published Saturday.
Above, Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during a press conference on November 9 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman said Russia is struggling with securing successes in Ukraine as it continues to use “failed” strategies to fight Ukrainian forces in its ongoing invasion.
Photo by Contributor/Getty Images
The U.S.-based think tank wrote in its latest assessment that the Ukrainian General Staff said that Putin’s forces were driven away near Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. In addition, assaults on towns and villages within 13 miles of the city were pushed back, the ISW said, citing milbloggers or military service members.
“A Russian milblogger claimed that Russian forces also continued assaulting Ukrainian fortifications near Bakhmut, where they are reportedly having minor tactical successes. Another Russian milblogger claimed that Russian forces have not yet captured Opytne and will likely not conduct a full-fledged assault on Bakhmut in the near term due to the likely associated high costs,” the ISW report read.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian foreign affairs ministry for comment. » …
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