for our lifeboatmen. they go out there in the channel, putting their lives at risk, they are a largely volunteer workforce, they can hardly be expected to say, do you have the right to be here? this is a problem that needs to be addressed urgently. you talked about international agreements and in many ways reaching some sort of deal with france on the eu would be a potential solution, it might be a deterrent if people were told actually if you come to the uk and you ve travelled through france you will get sent back but it seems france are in no hurry to reach any sort of deal. well, we ve had some recent examples in sweden and finland where outside pressures have caused a complete change of policy, notably in germany, deciding to re arm. so it can be done, it needs skilled diplomacy. we have some of the best diplomats in the world and i think it can be done but i m saying it should be done urgently before this gets completely out of hand and more people die crossing the channel.
just somehow save as many lives as they possibly can. chris, certainly upfront, we have watched a deliberate strategy. the russian air force using cruise missiles and bombs. the russian ground combat forces using rockets and artillery. they are directly attacking civilians under infrastructure, as a strategic way to influence a war. we just mentioned a statistics of perhaps 20,000 or more dead. the military defensive mariupol is now down to a couple of thousand police, and army. they are surrounded. they cannot get out. they probably are facing execution once they finally are overcome. their families are with them. it is an utter disaster. they have bought strategic time for the ukrainian army to reequipped, re-arm, and get ready for the
their families are with them. it is an utter disaster. they have bought strategic time for the ukrainian army to reequipped, re-arm, and get ready for the big fight, which is up north of them, facing east towards the donbas. but it is a heroic struggle of monumental proportions. in some ways it reminds me of the defense of the baton peninsula in the philippines against the japanese early in world war ii. so give us your overall assessment of where you think this stands now. this morning, when ukraine officials said russia is taking colossal losses. but we know in the eastern part of the country, so our ukrainians. the pentagon says russia s offensive appears stalled. maybe it is several days behind schedule, they say. where do you see this conflict right now? well, first of all, putin and his generals cannot fix the russian army in less than a
level across all of these battle space and across these long lines of communication, as we call it. it s all going to be proving very challenging. but what we ve seen so far is the challenges the russians face or have faced in the past are much greater. and i personally don t think the russian army has solved any of the problems they ve brought into this eastern and southern fight. well, that was going to be my next question to you because, i mean, given the problems we saw with the russian forces around kyiv and their failure to meet their initial objectives, have they been able to regroup, re-arm, renew? yeah, i think russia is facing three major problems. they have real challenges with manning the force. there have been indicators across the board that they have attempted to regenerate some of the forces they lost in the north and pushed them back in the east. i don t believe they ve done it. and an indicator of that is the fact that we ve now been in this pause, this so-called