00:00And joining us now is former advisor to President Zelensky, Igor Novikov, and retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges.
00:06He previously served as the commanding general of the U.S. Army Europe.
00:10Igor, how critical, how crucial is this meeting for President Zelensky today,
00:15especially on the heels of President Trump's phone call with Putin?
00:18I think it's one of the most important meetings they've ever had, and for a number of reasons.
00:24First of all, let's mention the Tomahawk missiles.
00:26You know, we have to understand that those missiles are not going to make a major difference on the battlefield,
00:33although they will help prevent the ongoing humanitarian disaster,
00:37because Russia is taking out Ukraine's energy grid at the moment, and the winter is coming.
00:41But, you know, the symbolic kind of side of things is incredibly important.
00:46For Putin, the first Tomahawk landing in Russian territory is basically a make-or-break-it moment,
00:52because the Russian public will not forgive him for that.
00:54That's embarrassing for them.
00:56But it's also important to see if we can arrive at that ceasefire,
01:00because Trump wants to be a peacemaker,
01:03and, you know, Ukraine's ready to speak with Putin, even,
01:07anywhere, with the exception of Russia and Belarus.
01:10And I think having that conversation is better than not having that conversation at the moment.
01:15So, all eyes of the world on this.
01:18Given Trump's shifting stances, how would you be advising Zelensky right now?
01:22I would be advising him to explain the causality and the importance of keeping the momentum going,
01:29because the reason Putin is speaking with President Trump is because he's afraid of the Tomahawk missiles.
01:34And now is not the time to let it go.
01:36Now is the time to increase the pressure and get that peace deal.
01:40Otherwise, Putin will play his delay tactics again, and we'll be back to square one.
01:44General, the president in recent weeks has reportedly been giving some fodder to the idea that he may send Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
01:53What would be the implications in your mind?
01:56Of course, those missiles can reach deep inside Russia.
01:58Walk us through why that weapon would be so crucial on the battlefield and what it could spell for Russia.
02:04Well, of course, the Tomahawk, with its range and its precision,
02:10will increase Ukraine's capability for destroying Russia's oil and gas infrastructure.
02:15And that really is the vulnerability that the Ukrainians have identified on the Russian side.
02:21If they can continue to erode Russia's ability to export oil and gas to China, India and Turkey and other customers,
02:30it becomes increasingly difficult for Russia to finance this war.
02:35So that's what this is about.
02:36It's knocking down Russia's ability to keep financing the war.
02:41Of course, they've had some success with their own drones,
02:44but their drones cannot carry the same type of warhead and go quite as far as Tomahawks.
02:51To make a difference, so there'll have to be a lot of them, you know, 30 or 40,
02:54that will be exactly what Igor said, only symbolic.
02:58Okay.
02:58So would it be a wise move for the U.S. to send Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine,
03:03or does that risk escalation here?
03:06This is what the Russians are good at.
03:08They make us worry about what they might do
03:10instead of them worrying about what we're going to do.
03:13Absolutely, we should be providing Tomahawk to Ukraine, a lot of them.
03:19And we should also make it very clear that it is our strategic interest
03:22that Ukraine actually defeats Russia, make Russia live inside its own borders.
03:27The fact is, the Russians have been fooling us,
03:30or we've allowed them to scare us that they might use a nuclear weapon.
03:34Now, how many times have they threatened that since the large-scale invasion,
03:37and we fell for it every single time?
03:39I have to say that I have zero hope that the administration will actually do this, however.
03:46Not once has the administration followed through on any of its threats
03:51to inflict consequences on Putin.
03:54And the reversal from yesterday's phone call to President Putin
03:59does not give me any hope that the administration is going to really stand by Ukraine
04:06and inflict consequences on the Russians.
04:08So, Igor, if we see this summit with Vladimir Putin and President Trump,
04:13is there a situation in your mind where Zelensky could tack on?
04:17I think he could.
04:19But it's a question of, you know, how successfully Putin plays his delay tactics here.
04:24If he can fool President Trump again, the same way he did in Alaska,
04:28I don't think there's any hope of anything achieved, being achieved in Budapest.
04:35But if the pressure is sustained, then there's hope.
04:38It seems as we talk about whether it's in the Middle East
04:41or we talk about the Ukraine-Russia situation,
04:43the pressure from the president is the critical element there.
04:58Thank you.
05:14Thank you.
05:17Thank you.
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