Donald Trump has urged Vladimir Putin to «spare» the lives of thousands of Ukrainian troops trapped in a cauldron in Kursk region. Putin promised that soldiers who lay down their arms and surrender will be guaranteed their lives and dignified treatment. Sputnik asked a veteran Washington security and defense policy insider what to make of it all.
“The invasion of Kursk was a Western-backed and directed operation. It was designed to try to, I think, create some bargaining leverage for the West to compel Russia to surrender. And it failed,” Larry Johnson told Sputnik.
“Not only has it failed, it’s failed spectacularly in a way that it’s wiped out significant military units in Ukraine as well as the equipment,” Johnson, a retired CIA intelligence analyst and ex-State Department counterterrorism office official, explained.
Trump’s appeal to Putin is an attempt “to rescue a bad situation,” an absolute “disaster,” which Johnson doesn’t expect to succeed.
Highlighting how, to this day, many Americans continue to “believe that Russia is losing,” and that “all we need to do is keep applying pressure,” Johnson stressed that “it’s going to take a military defeat wiping out the Ukrainian force in order for the West to wake up and realize Russia is not lying.”
