people and the ukrainian army. so what they re doing now is they re creating these fire bases that they re using to just bombard cities and as you rightly use the analogy of aleppo, or grosny. we have to contest, help ukrainians contest. the aerospace and maritime domains. these are steps in the right direction but the estimates are, jim, that the russians are going to inflict a million deaths on ukrainian people, create maybe 6 million refugees. are we just going to watch that happen? and so we have to balance the risk of inaction with the risk of action. that s my question to you, right. do we at large end up watching? right, because when he fails, putin kills. he just levels the cities.
defense. joined now by former national security adviser, hr mcmaster and author of a timely book in these times batt battleground fight to defend the free world. welcome. we see the plan to arm ukrainians with advanced weaponry. stingers, javelins, others like it. fighter jets. intelligence. stopped short of a no fly zone fearing that would lead to a war between the u.s. and russia. is that the right call and is it enough to help the ukrainians push back? well, it s probably not enough. i m glad to see it, jim, and thank you for the great reporting you and your colleagues are doing. but it s clear, i think it s very clear that what they re doing is just as you reported, they re failing, the offensive is failing based on the effect of defenses by the ukrainian
russian army deterrence force on combat alert. this is a behavior which is irresponsible. and combine this with what they re doing on the ground in ukraine, waging war against the independent sovereign nation, conducting pull fledge invasion of ukraine, this adds to the seriousness of the situation. world leaders are condemning putin s actions and ramping up support for ukraine. the eu says it will provide $500 million in lethal assistance for ukraine. european commission president calling this a water shed moment. as it is the first time the eu is financing the purchase of weapons to a nation under attack. germany making its own historic show of support. pledging more money for defense spending and vowing to arm
worse. what is this doing psychologically to ukrainians? until now, everyone we ve heard from, as devastated as the country has been, they said we will defeat russia, we will defeat putin, we are not scared, but when you look at what happened in mario poll, just today alone. is this creating a psychological break there? absolutely. when you look at the indiscriminate shelling of the civilian areas, there is a purpose to it from the russian army. it is to break civilians in this country. if you take out the heat, for example, or you take the power in the cities, it is unlivable. people cannot survive sub-zero temperatures for that many days without food, and with that water. wet so what happens, these cities clear out. the tragedy here though is that people who can leave are stuck in these cities, the elderly, the infirm, people who are sick. people in these hospitals, people receiving treatment in these hospitals. the people who can t leave are the ones who are stuck behind, and th
united states is changing its nuclear posture. another sign, the military, the daily briefing by the russian military admitting to the very first time that russian soldiers have been killed and wounded in battle. in ukraine. no numbers given. and the military spokesman saying that it was fewer than the ukrainians had suffered. but still a significant. that first example of their admission that people are dying. in this military operation. then finally another statement. this time from a former russian president. saying that there is no need, no particular need to have diplomatic relations anymore. he said we might as well padlock the embassies and look at each other through gun sites and