soldier, alex said, for you the war has already started. the soldier s replay, of course, do you see putin ending this without taking more ukrainian territory? not at all. i think there is a possibility for a negotiated settlement. i am not saying when the conditions are right ripe for that putin is not going to walk away without a win. so i would see some type of further incursion if you will into the dombas region as a minimum for putin to say, okay, now let s have a conversation about what the next step is. of course, you know, in doing that, definitionally that is violating the united states red line, this incursion. and when an administration official says in the last twours24 hours rush added 2,000 combat forces to ukraine remember that number is going up and up. they said they expect 30,000 to
minsk process the germans and french have been spearheading. it s going nowhere. the russians could decide to kind of tip the scales their way by seizing that territory. i am afraid to say, i do hope for negotiation. i think there is a possibility. but it s still more likely than not that they will use their forces. you know, it s all very sobering. you do have to judge on acts at some point, right, actions is not just standing there it s adding and adding and general marks are now hours away from these massive military exercises, both sides are holding up at the same time. obviously, that has its own potential parallel attached it to. but how closely are you watching the exercises, themselves, what they do, what happens? erin, the thing you see with this deployment of this size, first of all, it has all the combined elements that you would see in a combined arms team. that is you got heavy armor,
these in order to have any kind of deescalation, deliveries to ukraine must be halted. western military advisors and instructors removed from ukraine, all joint military exercises between ukraine and nato must end. all foreign weapons must be taken out of kyiv territory. that one on its own, that s not going to happen. so, are these demands anything that could be met even logistically? okay. erin, i am rolling my eyes. it s absurd. they re asking for unilateral disarmament. they re asking the ukrainians, don t defend your territory, roll over, play dead, let us have our way with a de-militarized ukraine. it s untenable. but it goes to show that you they can t really be serious about negotiating if these are the kind of demands that they re making. yeah. it s pretty stunning, as you
come in, these numbers are getting up, 150,000 in terms of estimates of who will be there, if not now, soon. 12,000 in one day. two weeks ago, you told me you thought an invice was 80% likely, given what we are seeing day in, day out, how do you feel now? well, erin, i think you made the case. nothing has changed, in fact, vladimir putin escalated the situation. but i m going to stand firm at 80% and when i say you know an incursion or invasion, any type of military operation against ukraine. i would agree with the general that is most likely that vladimir putin will go and try to seize the territory in the dombas. that is the territory where the war has been ongoing and over 13,000 people have lost their lives, where your contributor, your correspondent was reporting from. and that s, he could use that as levage to try to force an agreement on the ukrainians. there has been this so-called