speaking about prudent s ultimatum to nato which was never going to be accepted vladimir putin. that gave him the pretext of paint nato as the aggressor. you ve already spoken about the combat ready troop formations these troop numbers begin to dust continue to rise, cyber attacks have already commenced, as well, and we ve had some wobbly talk by the us president which almost gave the green light to a minor incursion. these are exactly the words that putin wants to hear. and i m afraid these talks have been designed to failfrom and i m afraid these talks have been designed to fail from russia s perspective. i mjust designed to fail from russia s perspective. i m just saddened that more countries haven t done what britain has lastly done, which is provide some hardware. if all nato countries had stepped forward, we may be looking at something very different today. but right now, it does look like an invasion will take place in the next few days. goodness, so you think it is inevita
russian troop formations, when you see their heavy weaponry massed along the border, would you say russia is preparing for some kind of incursion? yes russia is preparing for some kind of incursion? , ., ., , incursion? yes and no. it is difficult incursion? yes and no. it is difficult to incursion? yes and no. it is difficult to tell incursion? yes and no. it is difficult to tell because - incursion? yes and no. it is difficult to tell because of l incursion? yes and no. it is l difficult to tell because of the very opaque decision making structures in the kremlin. we note that russia absolutely prefer to use the threat of invasion as psychological persuasion persuading ukraine by a military use of force to deliver on political demands from russia. now this is a game changer because the mass of trips around ukraine, not only around russia but the black sea and belarus says that russia does not only use kovac measures but is an aggressor. so
when russia basically invaded the russian territory, ukrainians were pretty defenceless, they did not have anti tank weapons and now this is exactly what the uk has been sending. so where ukraine has weaknesses like when it comes to tanks, the uk is stepping in. so it makes a big difference. but also the british military advisers and trainers have been there in ukraine so it is a very different story from what we had eight years ago when the conflict in eastern ukraine started. i know it is a very speculative business but when you see the russian troop formations, when you see the heavy weaponry massed along the border, would you say russia is preparing for some kind of incursion? yes and no. it is actually difficult to tell because of the very opaque decision
propaganda. but like z s may have been coming out of his mouth at that moment. and it is interesting to watch ail of this but it doesn t seem like anything is de escalating. it certainly doesn t. if you look at troop formations around the ukraine border, if anything they re bringing in more, including we re told some significant missile units in belarus that could strike in kyiv or other parts of the country. i think what is most interesting, alisyn, about what you mentioned about this movie which does not look like it was actually made yet, but they were making preparations for it. is that you seen a new strategy by the united states and by britain to call out each of these efforts, the movie, the other incidents they may do, you saw the british name four people
ted obtained from a hospital in russia along with troops, vehicles and logistics infrastructure in belarus, the northern part. what do you make of these images? i should say we don t know when they were added? we know they were not there, february 4th, now these images are coming out. you can see all this infrastructure in place. well, i think what we need to start with is the premise that we were just discussing, which is that it s extremely doubtful as to whether or not sanctions are actually in and of themselves, regardless of how strong they are, are actually going to work. let s look at the recent past. we have sanctioned russia, the united states and other western allies have sanctions russia continuously. now, admittedly, these sanctions are much stronger. yet, even the threat of those much stronger sanction hasn t done that much. so what you are seeing is an increase in these troop