Former CIA director David Petraeus has said he hopes there will be two sets of actions from the Western world that would force Russia's Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
"First and foremost," he said, is to help Ukraine do even better on the front lines and in defending its airspace against drones, missiles, and so on.
And this would be done, Petraeus estimates, by finally agreeing that Europe would use the equivalent of $200-250 billion in frozen reserves in European banks, particularly in Belgium, as collateral for Euroclear bonds, the Telegraph reports.
"It could be given to Ukraine to enable it to do better, much better again, along with other weapons systems, munitions and so on - including those that they can't produce themselves for anti-ballistic missile defense and Patriots - but they could also double their drone production. And of course, that would enable them to solve their fiscal and economic challenges for a good two or three years," the man who commanded the multinational forces in Iraq and the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said in an interview with Corriere della Sera.
While the second set of actions, according to him, would be to destroy the Russian war economy with further sanctions.
"The Russian economy is more fragile than I think many people realize, given that its national welfare fund is expected to run out next year, and this is the fund that has been diverted from social welfare to enabling Russia's continued military-industrial production."
And then, he added, "going after the backers of the Russian war economy, the ones who buy the oil and gas - and then also those who enable the Russian war economy in terms of chips, magnets - and most of these coming from China to Russia."
"If both of these sets of actions were carried out, I think that in fact, Vladimir Putin would be forced to seek a cessation of hostilities, because he simply could not continue the war," the former CIA chief said.
While on the question of whether the current negotiations are bringing us closer to peace in Ukraine or not, Petraeus said that "it's very difficult to actually say, because a lot depends on Russia's willingness to make some concessions on its part, and because there are many things that we don't know."
"What we do know is that the 28-point list has been reduced to a list of 19 points on which there is agreement between the US and Ukraine, and that there are some topics that need to be resolved in a conversation between the two presidents, President (Donald) Trump and President (Volodymyr) Zelensky. We don't have much clarity on what the Russians might be willing to accept," former CIA director David Petraeus said, among other things. /Telegrafi/
