to the war in ukraine and more than 30
years after the first russian mcdonald's
was cheered as a symbol of global peace
the fast food chain says it's all over a
lot of western companies have closed
shop in russia because of vladimir
putin's war with ukraine with the hope
of reopening once the fighting is over
but mcdonald's move to permanently leave
russia could signal something much
bigger
that even after the war perhaps after
putin is gone the scars that he has
created could still be
in place might even be permanent but if
the loss of mcdonald's in russia is lost
on putin the state of his army in the
battlefield surely isn't with me now dr
rebecca grant president of iris
independent research national security
and military analyst and to fox news
contributor great to see you back again
so i want to talk about something that
happened was late last week but we
haven't had a chance to talk about it
here in america reports and that is a
battle that happens somewhere we're not
exactly sure but it's probably somewhere
in this area crossing the donetsk river
somewhere near bilo harifa west of
severo donetsk and that is that the
ukrainian military got word that the
russians were amassing on this side of
the river and were about to cross it
using pontoon bridges so they said ah
guess what let's go blow the crap out of
them and they did
i mean take a look at this these are
t-72 tanks that have had their turrets
lollipopped or blown off there's the
turrets there on the ground and one here
what kind of blow
is this to russia
well ukraine did a tremendous job here
and i am so impressed with these tactics
because john they watched the russians
put the pontoon across they watched the
first tanks and vehicles roll and then
they unleashed an artillery barrage
that used little cluster munitions and
submunitions to seek and destroy this
armor this is an incredibly
sophisticated tactic it's on a par with
what our forces could do in afghanistan
and iraq and it's really going to freak
out the russians i mean it's pretty
remarkable you know some accounts that
upwards of 80 armored vehicles tanks
bmps other armored vehicles were
destroyed in this there's those pontoon
bridges here that you could see
that were just destroyed they were
trying to put those across the river
they rolled some tanks across they
sunk the pontoon bridges there's a lot
of armor as you can see right here
that's even in the water and look at all
that mud and i like how ukraine was
smart enough to see this coming and to
plan it out to wreak the maximum
destruction on this russian battalion
tactical group the remnants of this
russian unit aren't going to want to
make an attack like this again because
when they're in vehicles and moving as a
group they are vulnerable and now they
know it well you've got to wonder not
just this battalion which was really
decimated by this but any other russian
battalion are they going to want to move
anywhere knowing that
the ukrainians have got intelligence on
them and they've got a beat on them as
well oh it's a message because ukraine
can track them with uavs and then use
artillery like the ones that come in
from u.s and nato to use really precise
strikes so that means that these russian
forces are vulnerable anytime they try
to move so that's a big advantage so
just on the bigger map here the area
that this was happening was down in in
this area here in a line from the izum
to several donetsk but i want to talk
about hakeev because harkev uh there's
been a tremendous amount of success by
ukrainian forces in pushing the russians
back not just from the city but back
toward the the border between ukraine
and russia russia still hasn't taken
madagupo and they still can't get west
of mikalaya of here but talk to me about
harkeev and in the fact that this is the
biggest second biggest city in in
ukraine and they've basically pushed the
russians out just like they pushed him
back from kiev so the retreat of russia
from kharkiv is very important they're
doing it because they're losing and they
want to put more troops down here but
this has made zelinski say hey we can
win this war so it is a whole new war
now as long as ukraine can keep these
jaws from clamping shut here then they
have the chance to go on the
counter-offensive clear the russians out
here and start thinking strategically
about maybe attacking russian bases in
crimea but part of the problem though
with that is that ukraine apparently is
beginning to run out of some of the
weapons that have been so effective
against the russians like these turkish
drones
right the drones but we've also given
them drones that will help augment that
so as long as nato can supply them
exactly switchblade phantom ghosts the
others and others from european partners
and get the shells and the drones in
there and they can keep this offensive
up they really proved that at the bridge
so a huge miscalculation by vladimir
putin trying to take the whole country
at once it just fell on its face he
can't even make significant gains here
but here's the other part of the
equation that is really blowing up in
his face you've got finland first
and now sweden saying you know what
we're going to become a part of nato and
and here's vladimir putin who wanted to
break up nato destabilize the eu and
instead
finland and sweden are going to join
these blue nations in nato and look at
this right now you've got a border of
about 225 miles between nato and russia
with latvia and estonia but if when
finland joins that's going to add about
804 more miles of nato border directly
with russia i mean this is an epic epic
failure on putin's part
so now putin is losing on the northern
flank as well and john let me mention
sweden has not been in a war or an
alliance since
1814 yes 1814
shattering important decisions for them
historic hard to do but they will not
trust russia for three generations after
this wow so this this is going to be a
lasting problem finland had a good
relationship with russia this is going
to throw that out the window finland
prized its neutrality but they
understand what the threat is like they
beat him in the 1939 war and right now
they want security for their children in
the future and that's why they're
joining nato wow
putin couldn't have done much worse
could he nope all right rebecca great to
see you thank you thank you jackie hey
sean hannity here hey click here to
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