Mr. Secretary, thanks very much for joining me here in The Situa
I just want to get your quick re first of all, to this latest
deadly Russian strike on this civilian area
right in the city center of Kram killing people, injuring a lot o
No military targets nearby at al just trying to create terror and
Sure. Wolf, it's horrible.
It's been going on for 16 months now. Right.
We forget that in the early days of this conflict,
Putin was bombing maternity hospitals and daycare centers
and they were executing people on the streets.
Look, there are war crimes that committed, continue to be commit
And at some point in time, Russians will be held accountabl
Putin personally, Putin will be held accountable.
He should be held for absolutely crimes. Absolutely.
All right. Let's talk a little b about what's going on right now.
Do you think that these this Wag mutiny, as it's being called,
is going to affect Putin's war in Ukraine? Yes.
I mean, at the tactical level,
it has the impact of taking a very capable player off the ba
V Crane, I mean, over the past 16 months, it's been the Volga g
has been the only Russian entity if you will, that was able
to accomplish anything by seizin
Now, they it was a Pyrrhic victo
They did it at Great Cost, but they were still effective.
Now they're off the battlefield at the same time.
Russian troops, most of whom I t this point must be conscripts,
have to be asking themselves, what am I fighting for?
They look back.
They see all the mayhem happening in Moscow.
I'm sure the words that promotio
about the war being unnecessary,
about it being Putin being foole about the generals and oligarchs
using it to plunder Ukraine has to resonate with the
In addition to the Russian peopl
So I think it undermines Russian and and readiness on the battlef
But we'll see. Right.
The counter-offensive needs to play itself out.
The U.S.
Defense Department announced tod another huge U.S.
military package for Ukraine, in
among other things, mine clearing equipment.
What do you make of that?
Yeah, I read that Bangalore torp
very important to use when you're up against fixed def
The Russians have had six or sev to build defenses all along
that 600 mile or so front line.
This is a tough operation breach
And the enemy obstacle is very d to do.
It's difficult for the United St
And so you have forces right now the Ukrainians who have Western
they have Western training.
But the Russians have had a lot to prepare The former president,
Donald Trump, and you were his defense secretary, he said o
today he could settle this war in 24 h
What's your reaction That's absu
But the only person that could s this war in 24 hours would be Vl
Putin if he were to come out tod and say it was a huge mistake.
I'm withdrawing all of Russia's And we'll talk about next steps.
He's the only person who could e this war if Putin made that deci
He doesn't look like he's making that decision, but that would en
If he just said, let's let's get out of Ukraine
and let that country do what it wants to do.
This CNN audio that this audio o
talking about highly confidentia or top secret information
with his group over at Mar a Lago or a country club in New
These were all very, very highly confidential.
Topsy crit documents, talking specifically about the possibili
of a war option against Iran for whatever reason
Does that audio you've heard the audio now.
What's your reaction to that?
Because it's really disturbing t a former president would be shar
kind of top secret information w who don't have security clearanc
It does not surprise me. It shoc
If true, if all the allegations it's very irresponsible and dang
and the description of it first of all, didn't add up to m
some time ago, was discussed.
It was a four page document.
That's not what we ever presente
up to President Trump when he asked for options.
We would come and present option usually on a single big sheet of
we called Placemat, where we wou we would outline different optio
based on varying degrees of diff and the effects it would have.
And it was classified.
Of course, that's what we would typically p
So I'm curious as to what this document is.
And to me, that's the key questi because
so much circulates about this do what it means how classified it
I think we need to see what that
I'm sure at some point we probab
But it's very disturbing that a former president
could be sharing this kind of in about potential war plans
against Iran with people who don't have national security
Well, absolutely.
I mean, right now there's a youn
from the Massachusetts National National Guard
who's been charged with Espionag because he took unauthorized doc
classified documents, he retaine and then he shared the informati
And he's being held in a I think, a court up in Boston ri
You know, very, very disturbing
Secretary, thanks very much for joining us.
Thank you, Wolf. Mark Esper, tha