Ivanna, thanks so much for
joining us this morning.
>> Thank you.
>>> And joining us now to talk
about all of this, CNN military
analyst, retired lieutenant
general mark hertling.
Good morning, general.
I’d like to start by just
getting your reaction to what we
heard today from president
Putin.
Your reaction to his speech and
also I think really the big news
from that speech this morning
which was that Russia was going
to be pulling out — or not
participating in the new start
nuclear treaty.
How do you view that bit of news
in particular?
Do you view it as more symbolic
or does it have some real teeth?
>> Well, yeah, good morning,
Kristen and Jim.
I do see it as somewhat symbolic
but I also see it as Putin
hurting himself.
I think he wants to gain more
intelligence from us than we
want to gain from him with this
new start treaty.
The comment by Fred pleitgen
earlier about they were
concerned about how much
intelligence Ukraine had gained
from the Engels air force base
in Russia, which is near Moscow,
it was just fascinating to me
because it’s basically saying,
hey, they want to target our
facilities.
Of course they do.
You know, but going back to your
original question, like Fred
pleitgen I woke up and watched
Mr. Putin’s speech.
Besides the new start treaty,
the comments about pedophilia in
the west, traitors in Russia
will be punished, the west
started the war, the west is
responsible for Ukrainian
escalation.
These are tropes we have been
had a erring from Mr. Putin all
along.
His state of the Russia
federation, at least he didn’t
have someone standing up and
yelling liar but he did have a
lot of sleepy parliamentary
members and generals in that
audience because they have heard
it all before.
>> Let me ask you, general
hertling, those are not the
words of a president who is
looking to end this war.
He’s digging in and he may have
China’s help going forward.
There was some hope that maybe
this was the year that Ukraine
breaks through those Russian
lines, takes back territory,
maybe Russia sues for peace.
As you hear those words and hear
China considering stepping in,
does that hope disappear?
>> It doesn’t, Jim.
One of the things I didn’t
mention about his speech, he had
a big section where he vowed to
systemically press the
offensive, which tells me he is
not changing his strategic
objectives and as you and I have
talked on several occasions
those three strategic objectives
that he had at the beginning of
the war have failed in every
single phase of the war.
>> Yeah.
>> He has not been able to press
those, he has shown the
inability to get his soldiers
moving on the battlefield and I
don’t think we’re going to see
any more of that other than more
killing of Russian mobilized
troops which is going to be
unfortunate.
>> Is China —
>> Go I ahead —
>> If Russia is incapable of
gaining territory but digging in
and going to have help from
China is it lengthening the
slog?
No clear winner but a lot of
sadly death and destruction on
the battlefield like we’ve seen
so much in recent weeks?
>> I think what we’re going to
see in the next couple of weeks
is a rush to victory by both
sides, if you will.
Russia is going to continue to
put more on the front lines but
they’re mobilized untrained
forces and it will create a slog
and unfortunately a lot of death
for Russia soldiers and
Ukrainians as well, but I think
Ukraine is attempting to push
the envelope, get trained in
Europe, in Germany, Poland, the
uk, the various places where
they’re training and being able
to capably execute an offensive.
I see that happening later in
the winter, probably early
spring.
So we’re going to see some back
and forth for a while, but I do
believe that Ukraine is going to
take the fight to the enemy and
regain much of their territory
in the spring and early summer.
>> Goodness.
It will be a lot to watch in the
coming weeks because both sides
seem to be digging in for
something aggressive.
Lieutenant colonel mark
