Is it your view that Ukraine
can win without the air power,
that it continues to ask for
Well, that's what
we're going to spend the next
I guess you're probably plus seeing Fred.
You know, I am
unfortunately not a military analyst,
but what I think the pattern though,
that we've seen over this past year,
the first year of the Ukrainian war
has been the West,
you know,
very slowly, very cautiously,
I think probably not to overwhelm
Ukrainian logistics capabilities
and that sort of thing,
slowly ramping up the type of weaponry
and the ammunition that goes with that
over the past year.
Will that also be the case for F-16s?
I mean,
remember, a couple of months ago,
the administration was also saying,
well, we're not going to send tanks.
So that has shifted.
Will this be another thing that shifts?
Perhaps some of it will depend on
what happens on the ground
this year during the war.
I guess we'll have to see.
Yeah, because Biden did say
they don't need it now.
He did use the word not now.
All right.
So have a listen to what the U.S.
Secretary of State, Antony
Blinken, said yesterday in
his United Nations address.
In this war,
there is an aggressor
and there is a victim.
Russia fights for conquest.
Ukraine fights for its freedom.
If Russia stops
fighting and leaves Ukraine,
the war ends.
If Ukraine stops fighting.
Ukraine ends.
The fact remains one man.
Vladimir Putin started this war.
One man can end it.
So, Steve,
do you see the potential scenario
that Putin ends it perhaps after
running out of resources or soldiers
Well, first, I have to
I have to agree with
the secretary
is very clear formulation on that.
I mean, really,
I think most commonsensical, straight
thinking people in the world,
if you look at it
say, okay, nations are built with
this idea of sovereignty is sovereignty.
Other people don't
get to come in and invade you.
And that's precisely what
what Russia did unprovoked into Ukraine.
That much that basis for all of this
is certainly true
as to whether or not Putin
will run out of something,
willpower, ammunition, men
that it wants to send into the
into the meat grinder.
I would be surprised if Putin found a way
just to say, okay, no,
this is a big mistake.
Or I've gone too far
or we don't have enough resources.
This is one of the significant problems
with this
is that where does Putin go from here?
I mean, if he somehow gives up
and surrenders, that's going to
that's going
to have negative implications
for him back in Russia.
But if he doesn't win, that will, too.
And it looks like he's not going to win.
Certainly not in the short term, mid-term
so I I'm glad I'm
not in Vladimir
Putin's position right now
because he doesn't have
a whole lot of space to work with.
Is this perhaps
an effort of buying time
then for Putin that, you know,
China
President Xi
Jinping is planning a visit to Moscow.
China has proposed
a peace plan for Ukraine.
And now Zelensky
says, wait a minute, you know,
there needs to be a summit
involving Ukraine and China, who
perhaps might have the greatest leverage
over China here
You know, the Chinese position
is really interesting
and very complicated.
So I think the Chinese have very
they've stated
they have very long term goals.
They want to be
the primary superpower economically.
Militarily,
you know, in the next 50 years,
in the future.
But by the same token, they
they share a certain ideology
with Russia,
and that is democracies
worldwide or are a threat to them
because China is an authoritarian nation.
So how is China
going to play some sort of neutral
moderating position in this
when it's pretty clear
they're coming down on Russia's side?
So clearly that helps Russia.
But China has already been warned
by the United States and by the West
you shouldn't be giving them weapons
That's going to be a bad thing.
So China is walking
a really, really fine tightrope.
Certainly, it's true
that China needs Russia
much less than Russia needs China
at this point.
And as you mentioned,
you know,
economics is the real incentive
for China.
So perhaps
China could be looking at
a sort of partnering
with Ukraine because, look,
so much of the country
has been decimated.
China might be able to offer assistance
or see it as an opportunity
to help rebuild that country.
So economically, it gains.
Yeah, that's
kind of the role
that China has been playing,
you know, for the past 20 years.
It's trying to use its growing
economic influence
to reach out to nations
that are not as good
a situation
economically and try to help them.
It can benefit from that
from a relationship with Ukraine.
But I think more importantly,
Fred, geopolitically, China
if it's going to have the future
it wants to
have, has to have really good
economic relations
with the West,
with the E.U.,
with the United States
and other developed countries,
a relationship with Russia at this point,
those are mutually exclusive.
You can't have both of those things.
And so I think if I'm Russia,
I'm thinking over the long term,
I think the Chinese are probably not
necessarily going to be on our side
if we stay on the current course
and continue the war in Ukraine.