Putin apologist tells Charlie Kirk Russia “really didn't start” the war in Ukraine
Douglas Macgregor: “Remember, their initial demands, if you will, were pretty modest”
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From the February 15, 2023, edition of The Salem Radio Network's The Charlie Kirk Show, streamed on YouTube
CHARLIE KIRK (HOST): What do you think is Russia's overall goal with the war at this point? It seems that they're willing to continue to escalate this, send more troops. And so, what does success look like right now for the Kremlin?
RET. COL. DOUGLAS MACGREGOR (GUEST): Well, I think success for the Kremlin would be an end to this war, to be blunt. I think both the Russian people and the government would like to see this thing end. They'd like to negotiate an end to it. But they're certainly not going to walk into a negotiation where they're told, well, you have to accept guilt, quote unquote, for the war, which they really didn't start. And then they're not going to give up all the terrain that they've already seized, which was largely occupied by Russians. Remember, their initial demands, if you will, were pretty modest. You know, give these two republics in the far east autonomy. You give neutrality to Ukraine and ultimately recognize that Crimea is ours. They're not going to fall back on those now. They're going to demand neutrality for whatever form of a Ukrainian state exists. But it's going to be significantly reduced in size in a territorial sense.
The problem is that we don't seem to be interested in negotiating. And so, the other fallback position for the Russians -- and a gentleman just came back from Moscow told me this very recently, the Russians are prepared for a 30 month war with us. In other words, they've amassed all the ammunition, the equipment and the capabilities they need to fight us for two and a half years. They don't want to, but they're prepared for it.