counteroffensive. and you are hearing more of that. and the concern is that the unity of the alliance, both among western partners and nato, but also with their ukrainian partners, it s a blame game that emerges, as one official described it to me. and that s a problem right, because unity is important. not just in terms of standing up to russian aggression in ukraine, but also maintaining political support, military support, et cetera. a lot of this is bubbling up under the surface. and the fear is that bubbles up above the surface, and creates divisions that make it more difficult to survive to provide that support going for a fastening reporting thank you, and very concerning obviously. cnn military analyst and retired army general mark hertling and has been following developments closely and, tweets extensively about what goes on into a successful military operation how, this one differs from the standard model, also with us, william taylor former ambassador of ukraine. gener
out of northern russian. very operationally savvy. the fact that they have remained independent in the history of nato, and suddenly they want to become members, and they are joining, it shows how mr. putin s political objectives of dividing nato have fallen apart along with his other military and political objectives. it s a very good sign. sweden and finland, both joining nato. there s nothing better. general hurtling, appreciate it, steve hall, thank you. breaking news in the documents case. the former president s legal team joining in as a move by his codefendant, walt nauta and the special counsel s response to it. and flooding in the northeast where the damage and suffering is already severe. anderson cooper 360 brought toto you by car gurus, shop, bu or sell your car online. get it with gurus.
what can you give ukraine to give them hope that there will be something in the future without committing entirely. that s really difficult balance, but that s what they ll be working with. and of course so much has been given to ukraine ahead of this counteroffensive. both in terms of training and in terms of weaponry. general hurtling, are you seeing signs that ukraine is gaining momentum in this counteroffensive? they have taken i think some 14, 15 square miles, but really have yet to punch through. how much progress do you think they re making? i am seeing momentum, alex, and it s a great question because there s a lot of western analysts who suggest that ukraine is not going fast enough. one of the things i d point out is ukraine is now the third largest army in europe behind russia and turkey. that they were at one point about the 11th largest army in europe. we re talking about the capability of the ukrainian armed forces to become even stronger on a daily basis. and what
military analyst and retired lieutenant general mark hurtling and jill dougherty who, of course, is a cnn contributor on russian affairs. thank you for joining me on this fourth of july. jill, i want to start with you. how important is it right now for putin to appear on this global stage surrounded by big global leaders like those of china and india? i think it s crucial because after all, you know, a week or so ago you had a rebellion with troops fighters on their way to moscow. that undermines putin s image not only domestically but internationally, and a lot of these countries that have supported him must be asking the question is he really still in charge, is he still, you know, vladimir putin whom we support, et cetera. lot of questioning behind the scenes, and he absolutely had to get out there. he s been out domestically and now internationally. general hurtling, we just heard today that the nato
prigozhin, it would put them on the same level. vladimir putin could never do that. he gets lukashenko who owes him a lot to do the deal. it leaves questions. does wagner disband? where do they go? do they go back to fight? do they exist? what happened to the lucrative business prigozhin had from wagner? it s quite extraordinary. lots of questions unfolding now. general hurtling, how incredible is it that this power struggle between the russian military on the one hand and prigozhin and his wagner troops spiralled this far? wolf, that is a great question. what s fascinating, in all organizational militaries you have unique personalities. some with a lot of ego. as jill mentioned, prigozhin is not just a time bomb, but he s a