these people have no power, no water and no safe way of getting out. the other city, the other town that we are focusing on is lisitchans. thank you. joining us now is former director of european affairs in the national security council. colonel vinman, thank you very much. russia is making progress. they are making advance in the donbas. what more can ukraine or perhaps the u.s. and allies do to help them? thanks for having me back on. the most important thing that ukraine needs to do in the short-term is hang on. the ukrainian military is is holding a line and allowing the russian military to break itself on the ukrainian military. not allowing large units to be pinned down or destroyed, not allowing russia to only to
russia has shown no interest in credibly negotiating. right. russia has a maximalist objectives. it hasn t given up on the whole country. they are living in an imaginary world. ukraine is going to start to recapture its territory. it s going to start to liberate its territory. these small russian gains in the east right now belie what this war is going to how this war is going to unfold. it s going to unfold in the favor of ukraine liberating its territory. colonel, thank you for being with us. bottom line, is there anything the white house can do about sky high gas prices before the midterms? millions feel the pain at the pump. the energy secretary joining me next. this is andrea mitchell reports on msnbc. reports on msnbc. is a journey for the curious traveler, one that many have yet to discover.
think it goes back to your earlier question that whether putin was material in the 2016 elections, donald trump seems to think that putin was material in the elections, and he s looking he s stretching out his hand asking for help. i m going to be on your side, vladimir putin. i want you to help me in 2024. and i think that he thinks that he can get some help. he s an opportunist looking for aid from a like-minded individual, and that s one of the reasons it seems that he s not willing to be critical. i think that has to in a lot of ways explain why the the self-preservation instinct depressed, why the efforts to make the right decision, high thinks those will be less important in the long run than having the aid of vladimir putin potentially going into 2024. colonel, donald trump says that putin didn t do this while i was there. people on this show have said
saw, the most important person in the republican party, wants to run again, will not call vladimir putin a war criminal. those were images of dead civilians that sean hannity put up on the screen. and donald trump said this, i rebuilt nato, started babble being trade and chevrolets and angela merkel and farmers, and then said, i knew putin. i knew what he wanted to do. colonel vinman, your thoughts? honestly, it was word vomit is what that clip showed. it s it s shocking that he didn t have the intellect, the intelligence to the self-preservation to criticize somebody that the vast majority of the american public despises and identifies as a barbarian, as a war criminal. so i mean, he s always been his own worst enemy, and he continues to do so now.
putin is a killer, putin is evil, that 95% of the american population agree with except for this man. and i have tremendous respect for alex and wish i could agree with him that donald trump isn t a viable candidate, but i don t know that i agree. i think he still wields extraordinary influence over the republican party. i don t know that even in the face of all these horrific atrocities that when people s memories fade in two years from now and he s out there stumping that there isn t going to be a significant chance that he will have the nomination and be a viable candidate. i hope i m wrong, but i have reason to believe i m not. colonel vinman, i want to come at it from the other side. it s not just the refusal to criticize vladimir putin and the history of praising him, it s what he did to weaken ukraine. you had a front row seat for that. this is your quote to some great reporting in the new york times magazine, you said this, ukraine became radioactive for the duration of