we are where we are now because of the courage of the ukrainian fighters and because of u.s. firepower, whether it is directly from us or channelled through other nato countries. that s just my take. i think historians are going to look back and say, after one screw-up after another over the past 20 years, a commander in chief actually managed an international crisis well. joe, i would agree. he gets high marks. this indirect strategy of helping ukraine militarily, the sanctions, strengthening nato, all this looks good. you know, as you know, i ve had problems all along with some of the rhetoric which set goals either that were beyond our means, like regime change, or would complicate any chance to get into the war by calling putin a war criminal, now genocide. we re also at an interesting point. there is one other consideration here when it comes to arming ukraine. this might sound counterintuitive, but i think there is a big question, what are we trying to accomplish?
more discussion is needed. that is, specifically on the questions of arms control and nuclear weapons, missile placement, as well as transpatr transparency over military exercises. nato hopes the fronts about their massive restrictions, trade support for ukraine militarily and eastern european countries, that that will get ukraine russia to not invade ukraine. the best possible scenario for the u.s. and for nato out of all this is more discussions. but what we don t know is how much patience the russians have. the kremlin said yesterday that they have no reason for optimism yet, and, of course, the major x factor is what putin is thinking in all of this. christine? of course it is. all right, alex marquart for us in brussels. thanks, alex. laura? you know her face but do you know her whole story? the new cnn original story reframed.
nor are we going to allow russia to decide whether eukraine join nato or not. i think the other thing they re trying to do is rattle the ukrainian government. putin doesn t want to march an army in. he d love to have this government fall and a russian friendly government installed instead. so you know, we have to both support ukraine militarily, but also politically to make sure that you know, the people of ukraine understand that they should stick with the government and they shouldn t let these threats from putin end up in there being instability inside kyiv. that s what putin wants. there does seem to be this disagreement in words of the white house has used the term imminent. the potential for russian invasion. ukrainian officials have not used that word or said it s not imminent. where do you see, how do you describe the threat? i think this is a delicate
him to stop. we are not going to be attacking inside ukraine militarily, but we must level this punishing and very painful economic, well, economic warfare against. now, in response to that, the former russian president warned him and warned the west that he said, don t forget, in history, economic warfare has led to real war and in response to that, and in response to any so-called miscalculation that putin might make, the secretary general of nato today again said that one square inch of nato territory, so much as one soldier from russia puts one foot on one square inch, nato will come down hard in its entire allied force. so they re trying to make putin understand that, but we re at a very, very risky point in this conflict, and the president of ukraine, as you know, still bravely in kyiv, addressed the eu today and said he wanted more
con . uers want to engage them. if russia conquers ukraine want to engage them. if russia conquers ukraine militarily, - conquers ukraine militarily, would ukraine win a long insurgency afterwards? i absolutely believe, based on their performance to date, but they will make this so painful for russia that the term win does apply. for russia that the term win does apply- for russia that the term win does apply. brendan kearney, thank you does apply. brendan kearney, thank you so does apply. brendan kearney, thank you so much does apply. brendan kearney, thank you so much for- does apply. brendan kearney, thank you so much forjoining| thank you so much forjoining us. 0n on two other news now. australia s prime minister has offered the family of shane worn a state funeral for the cricket legend, the 52 year old died after a suspected heart attack. a giant of the game, shane worn won the world cup in australia in 1999, ball of the century, and went on to take more than 700 t