Ukrainian president has stark new warning as war rages on

Ukraine's

president

is giving his strongest and

stark

est

warning

yet about the state of the war against Russia without U.S. military help. However, of course, if Congress doesn't help Ukraine, Ukraine, we will lose the war and we need to find a public format for this. If Ukraine loses the war, other states would be attacked. Volodymyr Zelensky also says that Russia will soon, quote, increasingly insist on including nuclear weapons in its debate. Meanwhile, the head of the US House Intelligence Committee says Russian propaganda has absolutely spread through Congress, particularly among some of his Republican colleagues. Several hardline House conservatives have refused to back a $95 billion aid package, which includes $60 billion in aid for Ukraine.

I am now joined from Vienna by Frances O'Grady, an associate member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. I mean, it was very clear language from President Zelensky, right? It is fair to assume that we are currently in a transitional phase when it comes to the war in Ukraine. Russia is carrying out probing attacks along the front line. He's trying to advance where he can and is preparing for what looks to be a future offense going forward. And this, of course, is very, very worrying because currently Ukraine is also losing territory. And the biggest obstacle Ukraine currently has in its war against Russia is personnel.

Of course, it is related to ammunition, but it is not exclusively about the lack of Western support. I want to emphasize this here using war. How do you read that? Does that mean that Russia maintains the lines it has or that Russia continues to take the rest of Ukraine? Well, I think it would be premature to say that Ukraine is losing this war. I think in general, yes, it is true that there are certain negative trends that are occurring in 20, 24 for Ukraine. But I also think that at the same time, this war is far from over or, you know, far from lost for Ukraine.

The main problem here is manpower and ammunition, and Ukraine needs both of those things to at least maintain what they currently are, you know, along the front line. So I think what we need in the future is some tactical withdrawals, some Russian advances, along parts of the front line, maybe even in the future, a partial collapse of certain sectors of the Ukrainian front line. But this does not mean that Ukraine will lose this war. It just means that we probably need to be prepared for bad news in the future. But this is not an indication that Ukraine will lose the fight in the long term.

Obviously everything possible has been stepped up to fill the gap, potentially getting American money into Ukraine, and new plans have also been put forward for how that war could be supported from Europe, taking some pressure off the United States. United States Is there any way Europe can replace what the United States is giving right now? Well, not in the short term. In the long term, I think the situation could be different. But this year Ukraine really needs US support in certain weapons systems, certain logistical support, which European countries simply cannot provide Ukraine. So American aid remains crucial, particularly when it comes to munitions, when it comes to other weapons systems like infantry fighting vehicles, long-range air defense systems in particular, because if you've been following the news Over the last few weeks, you will have seen an increase in so-called silent bomb attacks, which are really terrible and really wreak a lot of havoc on the front line.

And Ukraine desperately needs long-range air defense systems. And the United States is the only country that can really supply them, for example. Obviously, Trump enters this argument because many of his supporters are very against financing Ukraine. But when you look at Trump's language, you know, he, you know, it's not entirely clear what he would actually do in a situation if you base it on what he says before. But do you think he's really saying that he would stop funding Ukraine and stop supporting Ukraine, or not? This is a bigger problem, it's just that some European countries are simply not paying their fair share, a share in tomatoes.

I think it's a wake-up call for Europe on many, many fronts when it comes to these comments from the former

president

of the United States. That said, I think Europeans have realized that they don't need to step up, that they need to do more. It remains to be seen if it is enough for the moment, there is no substitute for American military aid. Unfortunately, I also want to stress that we must decouple the debate about American Western European military aid to Ukraine and the duration of this war, because the Ukrainians would continue to fight even without any Western aid, because they simply have no choice but to resist Russian aggression.

Okay, choking friends. Thank you very much for joining us with his vision today.