This Is How Trump Can Finally End The Russia-Ukraine War: Steve Forbes

Steve Forbes lays out the steps President Trump can take to end the Russia-Ukraine war successfully.

Transcript

00:00President Trump can bring the Ukraine war to a successful close. Here's how.

00:09I'm Steve Forbes and this is What's Ahead, where you get the insights you need to better navigate

00:14these turbulent times. Vladimir Putin respects and only responds to power. He'll say and promise

00:22whatever he thinks he must to advance his agenda of conquest. President Trump is chagrined that

00:29Putin hasn't acted on the president's proposal for a ceasefire as a preliminary step to ending the

00:35war. He rightly suspects now that the Russian dictator has been stringing him along. As a result,

00:42Trump says the U.S. will send Ukraine a Patriot missile system and perhaps other defensive

00:46weapons as well. To get a genuine peace, Washington must pour in needed weapons, both defensive and

00:54offensive. The Europeans should increase their assistance as well. The Ukrainians know how to

01:00fight, but from the war's beginning, Kiev has been shortchanged on what the country needed to throw

01:06out Putin's invaders. Incredibly, the Biden administration acted with fear that Putin might

01:13really get mad and use nuclear weapons. Putin played the timid souls of these make America weak

01:19policymakers like a violin. He wasn't about to cross the nuclear threshold. But such threats

01:26achieved his aim to prevent Ukraine getting what it needed to win the conflict. This involved not

01:33only weaponry, but also crippling restrictions on hitting targets inside Russia. When Donald Trump

01:39began his second term, Vladimir Putin believed Russia was about to win its war of conquest against Ukraine.

01:46He felt the U.S. and NATO were tiring of the fight and would force Ukraine to a disastrous agreement

01:53that would make Kiev a vassal of the Kremlin. Then, Putin would effectively end Moldova's independence

01:59and far more ominously seek to undermine NATO by chipping away the independence of NATO members

02:06Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Moscow had seized these small countries and made them part of the

02:12Soviet Union in 1940. They regained their freedom in the early 1990s. Putin would hit them through

02:19relentless cyberattacks and increasingly aggressive military moves on their borders. Poland, the crucial

02:26country now for European independence, would face similar assaults. Putin dreams not only of restoring

02:34the Russian Empire, but also becoming the master power of Europe. Here's what must be done to shatter

02:40Putin's nightmarish fantasies once and for all. President Trump and NATO should unleash a torrent of

02:46weapons for Ukraine, but also remove all restrictions on targets inside Russia, except for the Kremlin

02:53itself. The U.S. and Europe should seize that $300 billion of frozen Russian bank assets to pay for

03:01Ukrainian armaments. At the same time, harder sanctions on Russia should be imposed. The Kremlin's

03:08economy is weakening, in no small part because of the sanctions slapped on after the initial

03:13invasion. The alleged growth of the past two years came from massive military spending and money printing,

03:20not the ingredients for genuine prosperity. Inflation in Russia is rising. Consumers are cutting back.

03:27Manufacturing is weakening. Putin has serious man problem powers as well, since he won't conscript men

03:34in politically sensitive places like Moscow and St. Petersburg. North Korea is tripling the number of

03:41frontline troops it's providing Putin to 30,000. Putin's position is vulnerable. Ukraine doesn't have

03:49to seize all of the territory Russia now holds. It need only thwart Putin's summer offensive and push the

03:55Russians back a good bit. The message would then be clear. The Russian tyrant won't break Ukraine.

04:02His ugly ambitions would be shattered. Putin would have to negotiate a peace that would undergird a

04:08truly independent Ukraine. I'm Steve Forbes. Thanks for listening. Do send in your comments

04:14and suggestions. I look forward to being with you soon again.