democracy, and the ability to choose your own way of life. so it s not just against ukraine. president putin has said he wants all of the countries that entered nato since 1997 to become back under the russian prism, brought back into the russian prism. every country in europe has a real stake here that the ukrainians are carrying out the battle now but what president biden is saying to call, this is an international fight that is carrying on and putin is desiring to take back all that he feels the soviet union lost when the wall came down. and briefly, secretary cohen, how real do you think the threat is that vladimir putin would use chemicals? the ukrainians say he used phosphorous bombs which are not chemicals but they are banned weapons against civilians.
the real threat of weapons of mass destruction, of chemicals, biological, worst case nuclear, if he s really cornered? i think he s capable of anything. i think he s capable of anything, when you look what he has done, shooting babies, his soldiers killing young children, blowing their arms off, blowing their bodies apart, raping the women who survive, slaughtering them on a massive scale. i don t think he ll have any hesitancy to do what he feels he has to do to dominate the battle, but the caution here should be, the cautionary note, if he does, in fact, break all the rules dealing with chemical and biological and possibly nuclear weapons, he has opened this battle up to a much different level, at that point you may see the united states furnishing ukrainians with aircraft and other means of security that they don t have right now, so i think it s very
they ve not been able to because the ukrainians fought bravely, heroically and have partners who have flown security assistance, anti armor weapons, anti aircraft systems, millions of rounds of ammunition to support them in that fight, and i also think we have always tried to pay attention to what russia does, not just what it says, because they have misled the world from the beginning since they started massing troops on the border in october, and we started warning the world, as you alluded to russia did plan to invade and they said of course, that s not true. the u.s. was fear mongering, so we ll pay attention to what they do over the coming days, not just what they say. do you think that this was spin not just for world consumption but for russian consumption and they still could be planning to move to the west, that this is just a pause or a recalibration? they certainly have sufficient manpower and air power
involved in the humanitarian efforts here said that to me this morning when i ran into her at a local coffee shop here in lviv. the fact of the matter is, we heard from a deputy ukrainian prime minister this morning saying as many as 100,000 people could be still trapped, needed to be evacuated from mariupol. it could be an admission of sorts that that offensive by the russians here is faltering in some way. but on the other hand, the idea that it would provide relief for ukrainians, i just don t think that there is any measure of trust in any way, shape, or form from people in this city or anywhere else in this country for what s coming out of the kremlin. and we know that president zelenskyy again was speaking to another forum, an international forum, he still wants more weapons from the u.s., particularly more anti-tank or
dangerous for him to undertake that. if he does, we need to be prepared, giving them certainly the ability to defend themselves in a chemical environment and biological environment situation, but i think that at that point, if he crosses that threshold, i think all bets are off in terms of what the united states and the nato countries are prepared to do in return. and we should point out for everyone that of course those kinds of weapons know no border and we ve got u.s. troops from the 82 airborne whom the president met with just yesterday on this side of the border as well. we have a real stake in this in so many levels, as does everything everyone who loves freedom and democracy and what these ukrainians have managed to show us. thanks so much, secretary cohen and ambassador taylor. thanks to both of you. coming up, there are growing concerns, of course, that belarus could soon join.