Joe Biden Calls Putin a War Criminal; Is Putin Rapidly Losing the War in Ukraine?

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Visit Samsung.com to learn more about Galaxy Z Fold 4. Live from the Fox News Radio Studios in New York City, fresh off the set of Fox and Friends, it's America's receptive voice. Brian, being here, everybody. It's the Brian Killmeat show, 1866-408-7669. Dan Hoffman's going to be joining me at the bottom of the hour, former CIA station chief, and served in Moscow, Iraq, Pakistan, South Asia, and Europe.

I think the last gig was the easiest. And we'll, of course, take your calls in about 15 minutes. But first, I want to bring in General David Petraeus. General, always great to hear from you and get your expertise, especially after the extraordinary moment with President Zelensky addressing a joint session of Congress yesterday, this morning addressing the Bundestag in Germany, two days ago, Canada, and last week, the UK. Has he been an effective communicator for his cause?

Is he swaying not only government but the public? Oh, I think he is very much bright. And he's been exceedingly effective. And we saw the result of that yesterday. I'm sure the Biden administration already planned to provide a lot of additional.

military support, security assistance and humanitarian assistance, but Just in the past week alone, the U. S. has committed $1 billion worth of additional arms, ammunition and supplies. And getting into some of these areas that are a bit more uniquely capable, frankly, the so-called switchblade drone. essentially a kamikaze drone that can be launched by a soldier.

It's electric. It doesn't make any noise, unlike other drones where there's a bit of a noise that can be heard if they come too low. And it just circles up over a target until the time is right and then can slam it at the target. Uh that's going to be very effective, as will the additional Provision of the anti-tank weapons, the javelins, the stingers, the anti-aircraft, and there are going to be additional. anti aircraft.

The Stinger is really good up to about ten thousand feet. Beyond that, you've got to get something that's more capable, and they're going to provide some of that as well.

So and millions of rounds of ammunition, small arms, et cetera, I think again, this is going to be enormously helpful to Ukraine. I think it was largely in the works. But certainly his speech was a catalyst. It was also very, very powerful, I think, not just with the Congress, But with the American people. And there's a unique amount of bipartisan support in the country.

Uh, for Ukraine and for him, him personally. And I think it has had a galvanizing effect in the House of Commons in the UK. Certainly, with Canada and now with Germany as well. In Germany, he was particularly stern. And yet, they gave an astany innovation at the end.

And given the battlefield situation where Russian forces seem to be stalled. Certainly still pounding with their artillery, their dumb bombs, missiles, rockets doing terrible, horrific damage and killing innocent civilians. But they're largely stalled in terms of their movement and maneuver. And we know. That they are having to search everywhere for additional forces.

They've gone back to the eastern military district of Russia, so way out east to get reserves. For Ukraine, they are Pulling in forces that were deployed in Tajikistan, in Georgia, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia.

So everywhere they have forces, they're trying to bring them back to Russia or to the Ukain Ukraine front. And it's an indication that they are struggling to replace the forces that have been lost To revive, to reconstitute the units that have been rendered combat ineffective and so forth. And it also then indicates that. There's obviously no replacement plan for some months from now. When we would normally have pulled the forces out after this initial invasion and replaced them with others, there's no rotation plan that I'm aware of.

It's just pretty amazing time, especially for experts like you who study war and go to war college and teach it in some circumstances to see how wrong so many others were about the Ukrainians, Ukraine's ability to fight off the Russians and for the Russians to fight. Just to go through some of the lists of people didn't see it, 2,000 javelins are coming into theater, 1,000 light armor weapons, 6,000. In addition to 17,000 javelins already provided, again, and these are deadly out to about. 2,500 meters, very, very effective, a fire and forget weapon that, again, has proven devastating against Russian armor and vehicles. Right.

25,000 sets of armor, 25,000 helmets, 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition. Just a real quick before I get to this other news: are you convinced that our supply lines are secure and this will be delivered in a timely fashion from what you know and safely from the best you can in a war environment?

Well, I'm very confident that we can get it to the border of Ukraine. The challenge then will be that, of course, it's up to Ukrainian forces to maintain the Supply lines. They have to keep them open. But it appears right now that, with the exception of the encircled city of Bariupol. that the Ukrainian forces are able to get additional supplies to Kyiv, to Kharkiv, to Mykolaev down in the south, where the Russian forces have been held up that are trying to get to the southwestern port of Odessa, certainly to Odessa, which is now being shelled by Russian Navy ships as well.

So I think they can get this all forward, and I'm very confident that we can you saw what we can do with our Our fleet of C seventeen, these wide-bodied four-jet engine transport aircraft during the evacuation of. forces and individuals from Afghanistan, we can certainly flow all of this in there very, very quickly. And of course, other NATO countries are doing the same. General, I got so many questions for you. This story in the Wall Street Journal tape, I've read it in other places, and I watched the BBC report this morning.

Ukraine says its military has launched a counteroffensive in the capital of Kyiv to back up Russian forces, also other key cities, to get them some breathing room in towns of Erpine, I think I'm saying this wrong, Buka and Hostomail, in those areas. And Kherson, the only city that is occupied by the Russians, there's constant protest, and the Russian occupying forces are constantly under attack. This is extraordinary.

Well, it is extraordinary. Again, it's not just Ukrainian forces and territorial elements that are fighting, it's the entire country. And again, I cannot, having been part of an invasion force as the commander of the Great Hundred First Airborne Division. March of 2003. I cannot imagine invading the country where everyone hates you and most of the male population is trying to kill you.

But it is very important to push back those forces around Hostomel and Erpine. These are the Northwest. of Keys. They want to push them back at least far enough. That they can get the artillery out of range and reduce some of the damage that is being done to keep proper, keeping in mind how large it is, it's 320 square miles.

actually larger than the footprint of New York City. If someone told me Saddam Hussein or bin Laden got a hold of heavy armament and weapons, and they were just arbitrarily bombing cities, I'd say, no kidding. That's how they profile. But I never thought a modern army, even with even though that they have a, even though it's Vladimir Putin, would have no problem leveling a city after city, a hospital, apartment building, schools on purpose, knowing the whole world is watching with their iPhones, let alone satellite video. That is the lack of ethics and morals of Vladimir Putin.

Does it even surprise you they're doing to Ukraine what they did in Grozny and Chechnya?

Well, it's doesn't surprise me. What is different is that what you mentioned, that the world is watching in a way that it was not watching in Grosnya and Chechnya when they basically demolished the entire city. depopulated as the term is to try to control it. The same that they did in Aleppo in Syrian. They just bombed indiscriminately.

In fact, sometimes precisely, they would bomb the hospital and then bomb the first responders as well to whittle down their ranks.

So again, it's not surprising. But what's different is that every citizen with a smartphone is a news reporter, and it's all being documented. It's all being shown on social media. Again, this is really the first w war where you really have so ubiquitous uh coverage because of social media. It's all going on these different Uh platforms.

And again, it's all there to be seen. Individuals like you and your networks just aggregate this and present it to the world. And it is indeed very, very shocking. I mean, at this point, the Russians really, as I mentioned, are stalled. they're doing enormous damage still.

But at the end of the day, they seem unable to move forward wherever it is they are, around Kyiv, again around Kharkiv, down in the southwest and so forth. and the areas they have controlled. Are going to be miserable because again, everyone hates those soldiers. It won't be just demonstrations, it's going to be essentially. Partisan activity.

You know, in fact, the Ukrainian partisans make those in World War Two. The paltry by comparison. They're very, very resourceful, very savvy, very determined. And again, I cannot imagine the context for the Russian soldiers. Especially given that so many of them are conscripts whose period of conscription is supposed to end in April.

And who weren't even told that they were going to be fighting. In fact, some of them thought they would just be doing a victory parade through Kiev very, very quickly.

So this has turned out very, very different. Differently than certainly what the intelligence and military leaders in Moscow. If you don't mind reading between the lines through the interpreter, here's Vladimir Putin yesterday, cut one. But any people, and even more so the Russian people, will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and simply spit them out like a fly that accidentally flew into the mouth. Spit them out.

I am convinced that such a natural and necessary cleansing of society will only strengthen our country. And he went on, but basically he's seeing he must be seeing some unrest within his borders, correct?

Well, absolutely. And we saw the very well-publicized event where the woman went on television, you know, essentially saying this lies, all lies, and very courageous to. To put it mildly. And the demonstrators who continue to be on the streets despite being threatened that this will be criminal charges and they'll be thrown in jail, they'll be treated very harshly. But beyond that, he's got to be getting some initial pushback.

From all of those, he empowered to become oligarchs and multi-billionaires who were watching as their yachts, their townhouses in Mayfair and London, and all their other assets that. Chelsea football club in the UK and so forth are being seized. And who are watching their life's work again evaporating and their opportunities. Uh, to send their kids to school in the UK and go to southern France for vacations, etc., these are. no longer available to them.

And again, their assets are frozen, just as are the financial assets of the central bank of Russia. And with I think it's over four hundred companies now have either left The business in Russia or have made plans to. There's a list compiled by a Yeah. Yeah. This is stunning.

It is. By the way, General Petraeus, our guest. I'm sure you recognize his voice. Spain has just impounded their third yacht yesterday, one of the big super yachts in Spain. We know a lot of people prefer to live there than Russia.

Who would have thought? And number two, the Russians have confirmed a fourth dead general shot in the field, a fourth general, which I know you can relate to. I mean, and we speculated about this last weekend on One Nation, but these generals are forced to go up to the front oftentimes to address an emergency, and they're exposing themselves. I don't know how this guy died, but they have his picture up. They're acknowledging it.

Yeah. This is very, very capable Ukrainian snipers, most likely, who have been able by a variety of programs, reportedly, even some reportedly from the U.S. intelligence world. CIA. what they have done very effectively is identify the senior leaders Who have to come forward because the junior leaders have no initiative, basically.

You know, we used to say during the surge in Iraq, promote initiative, figure out what the orders you know, in the absence of orders, figure out what they should have been an aggressive and execute aggressively. That's not the culture in the Russian system. And they have no non-commissioned officer corps. The strength of the U.S. military, any professional Western military, is its professional non-commissioned officer corps.

They just don't have that. They have young officers that wait to be told what to do. And so senior officers have to go up to find out. And of course, the communications are jammed. It turned out they only have single channels.

Clear in the open, not secure communications, which is very easy to jam and the resourceful. Ukrainian citizens actually have been doing a lot of that, teams of them with basic police scanners, essentially. unlike our systems, which have frequency hopping secure radios, And so all of this conspires to make it very, very difficult for the Russians to make progress. By the way, they were using their own cellphones for a while, but then Ukrainians resourcefully bumped those numbers off and even turned, I think, off the three G that they were using for a period of time.

So the Russians are actually stealing civilian cellphones from the Ukrainians to try to figure out how to communicate. All of this just adds up. to enormous challenges and frustrations for Russian leaders. Those generals are getting out of their vehicles and coming up forward to find out what's going on, and snipers are waiting there to welcome them to Ukraine. Yeah, I've only got a couple minutes left, but I got to bring you to the talks portion of this.

Vladimir Milinsky, the Russian chief negotiator, says Ukraine is offering an Australian or Swedish version of a neutral demilitarized state, but at the same time a state with its own army and navy. The Ukrainians have denied that. They said, no, we still want to have an option joining NATO, the European Union. We don't want to demilitarize. But let's say the truth is somewhere in between.

Where would you start? And would you start negotiating now? Or could you have a better place if you're Ukraine in a couple of weeks?

Well, it's probably going to take a couple of weeks before this is concluded at the least. And in the but the problem is in the meantime, it's not just that the Russians are halted on the ground, it's that they're doing enormous destruction again from the air and also with artillery, rockets and missiles.

So The the pressure is clearly on Ukraine as well as it is very much mounting on Russia. And in Russia, it's mounting in Moscow. Again, it's the financial system, it's the economy collapsing, it's the pressure on the oligarchs, the individual sanctions, it's companies pulling out, just shutting down their operations.

So both sides actually feel an urgency, I'm sure. But Certainly. Being on the counteroffensive, if Ukraine can mount these in some key areas, as we discussed earlier, so say northwest of Kyiv. That'll be very helpful because what you want is a sense of momentum. To drive Russia to reach for an agreement and obviously try to get the best terms that you can.

But the pressure is on President Zelensky as well. Uh he knows that The battlefield is capricious. You never know. Mariupol could fall. That's the one large city that has been encircled.

Just devastating impact on civilians there. They're burying them in the open trenches in that film that President Zelensky showed yesterday to Congress. I believe that the picture of the mass graves was from Mariupol.

So again, there's huge urgency on the side of Ukraine as well because the devastation to their infrastructure will be with them for probably for decades to rebuild. Yeah, the world will rally for that if we just get to that point. It will. Yeah, General Petraeus, always an education. Thanks so much.

Yeah. My pleasure, Brian. Thank you. You got it. Bottom of the yellow, go to Dan Hoffman, the intelligence.

What's really going on in Moscow and more? You're listening to the Brian Kill Me Show.

So glad you're here. Diving deep into today's top stories, it's Brian Kilmead. From the Fox News Podcasts Network. I'm Janistine, Fox News Senior Meteorologist. Be sure to subscribe to the Janistine podcast at FoxNewsPodcast.com or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

And don't forget to spread the sunshine. Mr. President, after Everything we've seen, are you ready to call Putin a war criminal? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Mr.

President, who will you be meeting with last year? I think he is a worker. Yeah, he wanted to go correct that. That was. Uh our own reporter.

Uh asking twice. President Biden, who was just walking through a fundraiser, he looked like a fundraiser anyway. He said, Is he a war criminal? He says, Yes.

Now, that created outrage on Russia's side. Why is it creating outrage? We have video of you shooting at hospitals. We have you bombing out theaters with kids inside. Russia is kids is written in Russian outside, so you can see that from surveillance from the skies.

You did it anyway. You're targeting schools and hospitals, taking hospitals hostage, as well as taking over nuclear power plants. Of course, you're a war criminal. You guys all are. And I think if this continued this way, You'll all pay the price.

Talk about commanders as well as Vladimir Putin and who's ever left of your cabinet. Daniel Hopman next, don't move. Precise, personal, powerful. Is America's weather team in the palm of your hands? Get Fox Weather updates throughout your busy day, every day.

Subscribe and listen now at FoxNewsPodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Killmead. He is creating generational hatred, what he's doing right now. And if I had to write a book on this campaign right now and title it, it would be out of the Forrest Gut movie, Stupid Is Stupid Does.

Shelling those cities is just absolutely stupid right now because one, he's creating rubble and you never fought want to fight in rubbleized cities. He's getting absolute hatred of the Ukrainian people. And it just makes no sense to me. He's not going to take Kyiv. It's a huge city.

It's a 2,000-year-old city. And they're not going to give up. They're just not going to quit on him. I think it's reaching a point right now, if this was a prize fight. Putin's losing on points.

No kidding. And General Kellogg knows he's been fantastic on this, as did Daniel Hoffman, former CIA station chief, served in Moscow, Iraq, Pakistan, South Asia and Europe. Dan, welcome back. Do you agree with General Kellogg? Yes, I do, but it's still a very perilous time for Ukraine.

And I just fear that Vladimir Putin is going to escalate further. He's striking these civilian targets, including that drama theater in Mariupol. And Putin's in it to win. There's no off ramp for him. There might be an off ramp for his inner circle and his military, but I just don't see one.

This is Putin's war, and it's a war of atrocities. What about the way he profiles makes you think that it's limitless how much he's willing to do in order to win? What makes you think that?

Well, I think that's one of the key questions for the intelligence community supporting President Biden. Right now, we need to know Vladimir Putin's plans and intentions. Would he, for example, choose to use chemical weapons? He enabled Syria to do that way back in twenty fifteen. Would he do that on Ukraine?

Russia does not have a no first use policy. Would they use tactical nuclear weapons? I think Right now, I would say the likelihood of either of those scenarios is low, but at the same time, Vladimir Putin is desperate and He is lashing out very much at his own inner circle. He's concerned about the fact that he came to power promising there would be stability and economic prosperity.

Well, he's driven Russia's economy back to what it was in the 1998 uh crash or worse And That you know, that coupled with Russia's losses on the battlefield really present a problem for him. I just can't believe that in the 21st century with a modern army, it's okay to kill to blow up a hospital, schools, retirement villages, take a nuclear power plant hostage, make the workers work 500 hours a week, whatever they're doing. I mean, and they're surprised that President Biden casually said, I think he's a war criminal. They were insulted by that. What are they what is that a game?

Do they not realize they are going through the medieval style of warfare?

So Vladimir Putin, this is about a m major series of uh of in of just errors, miscalculations on his part. He underestimated Ukraine's will and capacity to fight. He underestimated President Zelensky, who was like the great communicator of the 21st century. And he underestimated, frankly, Brian, the commitment of the free press to go to Ukraine and cover the stories and show us the pictures of these of the residential areas and the hospitals and the schools and the civilians who've been killed. Look at.

They are in harm's way. I can tell you when I deployed to war zones, I had a Glock and an M4 and body armor and a quick reaction force. The journalists are on the X. They're there reporting. We lost two.

We lost Pierre and Sasha. God rest their souls. Ben Benjamin Hall was gravely injured. The press has risen to this challenge. And it's so extraordinary.

You know, they are preventing Vladimir Putin from distorting or obliterating the truth of this humanitarian catastrophe, which is the worst we've seen on this continent since World War II. I want you to hear what this guy wants to hear what the President Zielenski said yesterday a little bit from his message about what's at stake. And how he's done a brilliant job of not saying this is about me, help my country, help me. He's saying, I'm fighting for all of you. This is a fight we're all in.

Cut nine. Nobody knows whether it may have already started and what is the possibility of this war if Ukraine will fall, in case Ukraine will fall. It's very hard to say. And we've seen this 80 years ago when the Second World War has started. And there were similar tragedies in the history.

Nobody would be able to predict when the full-scale war would start and how it will end and who will put an end to that. In any case, the wars. tends to end up in millions of people lost, people die, and millions of buildings destroyed.

Now we have different technologies, nuclear weapons. In this case, we have the civ the whole civilization at stake. And he he's trying to say to NBC Nightly News, he's trying to say, guys, you know, we're fighting here. This could spread quickly if we don't stop him here. Do you see that as over overstatement to get his own aims, or do you think he's on the money?

He's 100% on the money. He's on the front lines defending democracy and freedom and liberty, all the things that we hold near and dear in the West, especially in the United States. I thought President Zelensky was so eloquent yesterday. He invoked Pearl Harbor in 9-11 when we were attacked from the skies. And now that's what's happening to Ukraine.

If we don't stand up for Ukraine and for Ukraine's fight for democracy, and look what Ukraine is giving up, we've got just regular citizens. Grabbing whatever arms they can find to defend their nation from Russia's onslaught. And make no mistake, this is not a fair fight, or at least it shouldn't have been. The Russians have a Far superior military capability against those odds. Ukraine refuses to give in and capitulate.

And President Zelensky is in harm's way. He's in Kiev right now. Mercenaries have reportedly sought to kill him. At least there have been at least three serious attempts on his life. And he's there.

With his moment, very reminiscent of Prime Minister Winston Churchill back during World War II, stayed in London during the bombings. He's giving his people hope and inspiration, and he's also mobilized the West. This is frankly, uh you know, less about President Biden, or frankly, President Trump's strong-arm tactics with NATO. Zelensky's been the one who's mobilized NATO, mobilized the West, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland even, to stand up for what matters, democracy. That's an extraordinary achievement on his part.

So there was a story today that the CIA has been training the Ukrainians to fight a guerrilla war since 2014-15, and the tactics of combining their assaults with sniper fire, along with the Stinger and the Javelin missiles, they seem very organized. And I think that's why the big story today is the pushback by the Ukrainians to try to push the Russians off the rims of these major cities. Do you know anything about this training that would have taken place? Yes, so that if it did take place, it's super secret. And the guy who wrote about it, I think it's Zach Dorfman from Yahoo, that's kind of a expose on his part.

And usually for CIA, the secret of our success is just that. The secret of our success And would the CIA work with our close partners overseas, including on paramilitary operations? Did we do that in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Well, we just might have. And did Ukraine need this sort of support?

Well, they might have. And we're seeing on the battlefield right now, look, most of the work is done by the Ukrainians themselves, they deserve the credit. But this is a story that may someday come to light in more detail. And if it does, that'll be kind of an interesting part of the story. But make no mistake, this is all about the Ukrainians stepping up and doing what they can.

What we haven't done enough, Brian. That's the part that bothers me. It's hard. I would hope it's hard for the Biden administration and the President himself to put his head to the pillow at night if he asks himself, have we done enough? Where are the MiGs?

Where are the S three hundreds?

Okay, you don't want to do a no-fly zone because you're afraid of a potential kinetic engagement with Russian Air Force. But give Ukraine the ability to have their own air defense system and their own essentially no-fly zone with more military equipment from the United States. We're failing to do that, and I think history will not be kind to us if we don't stand up in Ukraine. And as Zelensky noted, the world's Moment right now where democracy is on the line. And I've said many times: Ukraine and Taiwan, they're the fault lines in this century's ideological struggle between authoritarianism and democracy.

And this is time for the United States to lead. We are the leader of the free world. We got to start acting like it. What do you think the way I want you first to hear Tom Cotton? You know, he served in the infantry, he's got a law degree from Yale.

Cut 16. President Biden, once again, is on the back foot. He needs to be where President Zelensky urged him to be today, which is leading the world in helping Ukraine fight for their own freedom. This goes back for months, so Laura. You have had President Biden, who's continually been a day late and a dollar short, whether he's dragged along by the bravery and the courage that the Ukrainian army has displayed, or by members of Congress, and frankly, by members of Congress in both parties in many cases.

I mean, just look today, they announced the transfer of $800 million of weapons to Ukraine. That's welcome. Should have been done a month ago or two months ago, and it's still just a fraction of what Congress proposed last week. Look, the Ukrainian people and army have proven that they are capable of fighting the Russians. And just to give people an idea, 2,000 javelin missiles, 1,000 light anti-armor weapons, 6,000 AT4 anti-armor systems, 100 tactical unmanned aerial systems, 100 grenade launchers, 5,000 rifles, 1,000 pistols, 400 machine guns, 20 million rounds of small arms, ammo, grenade launchers and mortar rounds, 25,000 sets of body armor, 25,000 helmets.

And I guess his point and your point is: why aren't they there already? We had so much time to put a number of MiGs in there. Why are people just coming to reality now? My answer is probably they thought Zelensky was going to be dead and Ukraine was going to be steamed over.

Well, the sad story of American foreign policy, and I can tell you I lived this and it was very, very hard, is that we have tilted towards Russia since going back to the Obama administration's reset policy in 2008, with just right after Russia had launched a massive cyber attack on Estonia and invaded and occupied Georgia. At the time, I was asking Senior officials at the State Department, like, how could we be doing a reset policy? That is not the message we should be sending to Vladimir Putin. But I'll tell you something else about this administration. Yes, history will not be kind to them because a year ago, when Russia had 70,000 troops on the border, we gave Vladimir Putin a summit instead of giving Ukraine the weapons they needed.

Again, a tilt towards Russia, the thought that we could negotiate with the Russians, which was not ultimately the right decision. We should have at least taken out an insurance policy and delivered Ukraine a lot of military equipment a year ago. But that's history. Looking at today, The other thing President Biden needs to be doing, in addition to the military equipment, in addition to humanitarian assistance, look, Mariupol has been without food, water and electricity for two weeks. That's a big deal.

We need to get them humanitarian assistance. But President Biden needs to get up on the bully pulpit and address our nation more eloquently and the Russian people. Tell the Russians what's going on. Tell them this is Vladimir Putin's war. I don't think there's an off ramp for Vladimir Putin.

He's barreling down the highways of towards Kyiv and Ukraine's other major cities and destroying everything in its wake. But There should be an off ramp for for the Russian military. There should be an off-ramp for the Russian inner circ Putin's inner circle so they know there's an opportunity for them to ba break away. The President can say it publicly. Stop fighting.

Uh Vlad this is Vladimir Putin. War. He needs, you know, and Russia needs to stop fighting. Drop your arms, go home, and that's the only way that we're going to have a settlement. I think we need to be clear.

What is our mission? Is it a neutral Ukraine? I don't think so. Is it Ukraine dismembered where they don't have Crimea and the Donbass? I also don't think that's right.

Is it Ukraine never ever being able to join NATO? Also, that's up for Ukraine to decide.

So the President should. engage with President Zelensky and just Announce what is our mission here? What are we doing? What is the end state that we want? It's too amorphous right now.

And that doesn't help, ultimately, it doesn't help us. It doesn't help the Russians. We're starting to see cracks in Putin's propaganda machine. We saw that brave Russian editor at Channel 1 News in Russia, Marina Ovsianikova, who stood behind the anchor. Imagine that.

Imagine somebody stand behind the anchor there protesting the war. She was arrested, detained, and fined. But we're seeing protests in Russia. That's potentially what's going to give the Give us an off-ramp for this crisis.

So here is the Russian journalist you just mentioned. Uh on uh another network, Marina. How do you say your last name again? I've Sionico. It's not an easy one.

I'll be a good one. You are good at all those. It's not a complicated last name, my friend. You don't need vowels, which is pretty amazing, Dan. Cut 28.

As far as I can see on the internet, some of my colleagues have begun to resign from federal TV channels, and I think this is becoming a public demonstration because many are feeling a disconnect between the reality and what we say on air. Wow, it's pretty amazing that she didn't get jail time yet. Anyway, she went to court and I guess she got a day or two. I also see that Greiner, that outstanding women's basketball player, multiple gold medalist, has her detention for possession of hash oil extended till May 19th.

So they're not giving on that either. Um Dan, final thought. I love what you said at the end. This is not the time to say stop, keep the Donbass, keep Crimea, and call it a day. We'll be neutral like Finland and Sweden.

You're saying no. Go for total freedom, get your area back. Yeah. Got it. That's the only thing that we can be doing.

And anything left, Would be just dishonoring all of those Ukrainian civilians who have been killed in Russia's onslaughts, not to mention the Ukrainian military, which is fighting so courageously. Got it. Dan Hoffman, thanks so much. Great perspective. All right, cheers.

1-866-408-7669. We'll be back with your calls in a moment. Don't move. Giving you everything you need to know. You're with Brian Kilmead.

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The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Killmead. Nobody knows whether it may have already started and what is the possibility of this war if Ukraine will fall. In case Ukraine will fall, nobody would be able to predict when the full-scale war would start and how it will end, and who will put an end to that. That is a little more of Zelensky's one-on-one interview on NBC with Lester Holt, talking about why this is more and tried to broaden this out, why this is more than just a fight Ukraine against Russia.

And also, I think it's important to point out that the President of Ukraine, even though he's in a battle zone and his city, the capital, is being shelled right now. Addressed the Bundestag in Germany, the parliament. Think about this. They've come a long way. And he plays them on that.

He says, I was thankful, but he was also quite critical. He says the German hesitancy for EU membership, allowing them to join the EU, is problematic. He reminded the German about crimes of Nazi Germany in World War II to the Ukrainian people. Keep in mind, when they fought with the USSR, they lost 8 million people. We think World War II is cataclysmic because we lost 500 to maybe 600,000.

Can you imagine losing 8 million people? Also, good news, I think. Germany is now in the in Norway trying to cut different oil and gas deals, new ones with Norway. Germany looking to get off Russian oil and gas right away. I mean, who would think a President from the Green Party The Green Party would suddenly wake up and say, You can have my heavy weaponry.

You can allow Estonia and Latvia and all the other Baltic nations to transport heavy weaponry over your land when you initially denied it. And now you're saying I'm going to get off Russian oil and gas. Part of that I understand culturally, and I read this, and you tell me if it's true if you really know the German culture. Is they felt so guilty about World War II, they wanted to prove to the Soviet Union, now Russia, that they are no longer interested in doing anything like that again. That they thought setting up this relationship would assuage those thoughts and worries and make everyone trust Germany again.

Instead, we found out we can't trust Russia. Don't forget to trust me watching One Nation 8 o'clock on Saturday. From the Fox News Podcasts Network, in these ever-changing times, you can rely on Fox News for hourly updates for the very latest news and information on your time. Listen and download now at FoxNewsPodcasts.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. From the Fox News Radio Studios in New York City, giving you opinions and facts with a positive approach.

It's Brian Kilmead. Thanks so much for being here, everybody. It's the Brian Kill Meet Show. We're coming to you from New York City, where if you're not backs, you can't play for the Mets, Yankees, or Nets or Knicks. And heard around the country, heard around the world.

I'm not kidding. Can you imagine that? At this point, You cannot play for a professional sports team. If you're a home team, but you could be unvaxxeded and go beat the Nets or the Knicks. But if you're not backs you can't play.

Kyrie Irving scores 50 points. They're trying to win a championship. The Mets, 85% of VAX, 15% is not going to be able to play. Same with the Yankees, including their best player. And the Mayor says, I got better things to do.

No, you don't. Lift the mandates on all this stuff. We can make our own decisions. That is something to do. That's called leadership.

Martez is going to be with us in a matter of moments. And Congressman Kevin Brady, former chairman of the Ways and Means, we got to talk about how the budget's going down, inflation's going up, and so are gas and oil prices. Is it true? The oil companies are gouging? That's what the Democrats are saying.

Let's get to the big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. Here at home, the toll of the war is having an ever greater impact on the U.S. economy with soaring inflation and gas prices.

Meanwhile, that war in Ukraine is having quite the impact here at home where just about everything is costing more these days. They are blaming Biden for rising gas prices.

Meanwhile, guess who gets off scot-free? Not just Putin, but the big oil and gas companies. This is unbelievable. It's like the Democratic Party is writing their copy and loading their teleprompter. Media on board accepting the Democratic move, blaming inflation, gas, and oil prices on Putin.

But are the American people buying it? And oh yeah, what to do about the hype gas prices? Blame oil companies for gouging and the overdue need to go green. Wow. Number two.

I think Taiwan is certainly watching that. I'm confident that the Xi Jinping's not only watching what's going on in Ukraine today, but he's watching us sit at a table in Vienna while the Russians are killing innocent women and children. Yeah, the whole world's seeing that, Mike Pompeo, who was just in Taiwan, China. As President Biden and President Xi are scheduled to talk, there are reports that China was planning on taking Taiwan in the fall. What does the Russian ill-fated invasion and newfound pariah status do to that plan?

Number one. But any people, and even more so the Russian people, will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors. I am convinced that such a natural and necessary cleansing of society will only strengthen our country. Desperate Vladimir Putin, in my estimation, no ground gained. That's the story in the Russian War of Choice versus Ukraine.

Russia is haphazardly and barbarically bombing cities from afar, aiming for schools, hospitals, and apartment buildings.

Meanwhile, there is an effective counteroffensive from Ukraine, pushing them back out of the cities, and more help is on the way in terms of armaments. And it all has to do with President Zelensky's motivational power and his words. Let's bring in Mark Thiessen, loves to put things like this in perspective, former speechwriter for Bush, Washington Post columnist, Fox News contributor, fellow at AEI. Mark, can you believe we're talking about four weeks in, we're talking about a counteroffensive by the Ukrainians? It's amazing.

And the interesting thing is, President Biden yesterday unveiled this eight hundred billion dollar million dollar package of arms, eight thousand more eight hundred more Stingers and all these drones and everything like that. This could have all been delivered three weeks ago. It's all in the U. S. arsenal.

There's no reason why this couldn't have been delivered earlier.

So the question is, why are we why did he wait?

Well, thousands of Amer Ukrainians died. Why did he wait? It's because they never thought the Ukrainians could win. They they thought they were just help giving it they would they needed to give them some symbolic help. to hold off the enemy as long as they could before Kiev fell, and then we'd have to then this whole thing would be over and we'd have to deal with that.

And it turns out that not only have they held off the Russians, they they actually could win this thing. And so but nobody believed that. Biden didn't believe that. And so he hasn't been fighting a strategy to win. We need a strategy to defeat Vladimir Putin.

It's not just a question of can we help the Ukrainians stave off the Russians. It's a question of whether we can help the Ukrainians beat the Russians. And we look at that and say, every tank, every plane, every helicopter, every missile, every battalion of soldiers that the Ukrainians take out is making NATO safer because that's one less helicopter, one less plane, one less battalion, one less cruise missile that can threaten Poland, the Baltic states, and other NATO countries.

So we should be flooding the zone with everything we have and giving the Ukrainians the ability to beat them, not just for their sake, but for our sake. And we're not doing that. See, I see that. I see the big picture. And I actually feel like I'm in the minority.

And I just see that you have a chance to take this cancer on the world, as Vladimir Putin-led Russia, and actually put them back, not only contain them, defame them, and expose them for the fake superpower that they are. If they can't maintain their tanks, can you imagine the case and the condition of their nuclear weaponry? But here's an example of people that. Are normally on the right who just don't agree with me and you, Mark. This is this guy, William Rugger from the American Institute for Economy Research.

He was on Laura last night, Cut 22. There are parts of the foreign policy elite that are ideologically driven. Uh towards this position. They're not prudential. They're not realists, like I just heard you talk about, right?

They don't understand the world as it is, as opposed to this kind of idealistic world they would like it to be. And that leads them to want to, in some ways, have an unintended consequence of actually harming the people that they would like to help. And I think it's largely because of this ideological project. And we've seen this over the last 20 to 30 years, actually. It's of a peace, even though this is a different front.

It's similar to what we saw in Afghanistan, the people that opposed the withdrawal, and still think it was a bad idea for America to end its longest war.

So they're saying, just get back, not our problem. Why are we bothering 6,000 miles away? This is not their fight. Ukraine's not a perfect government. Yeah.

So my first question is, who the hell is William Rugger?

Okay. I've never heard of them. They have to dig down to the bottom of the barrel to find people to say stupid stuff like that.

So, you know, good for William Rugger for having his 15 minutes of fame today because he's taking away the money. I mean, that's an example, but there are other people that I know you like that feel the same way. Yeah, you know what uh my my feeling is? You shouldn't feel like you're in the minority. They're in the minority.

So here uh there was a I think it was a Reuters Ipsos poll the other day that came out. Seventy five percent of Americans, including majorities of both Republicans and Democrats, want to impose a no-fly zone. In Ukraine.

Now, they haven't thought through the implications of that. They haven't thought, okay, well, that would mean we could be in combat. I don't support a no-fly zone personally. I think we should be giving them the planes to set up their own no-fly zone. But what it says is the vast majority of Americans, including the vast majority of American conservatives, Support Ukraine, hate Russia.

I mean, you know, this is like muscle memory for most of us, right? This is the Cold War is back, right? Putin is a KGB agent. He's trying to reinstate the Soviet Union. Those of us who fought the Cold War and were involved in the battles of the Cold War know exactly what's going on here.

And so do most Americans instinctively understand that. They're not with the isolationists. The isolationist movement on the right and left has been so discredited in the last six months between the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and now with the isolationist response to Putin, their policy is in shambles. We see what happens when America abdicates its leadership position on the world stage. That doesn't mean we have to go and fight every war.

Ronald Reagan was not an isolationist, but he started no new wars in this country. He had a policy of peace through strength. He armed and trained rebels around the world, in Angola, in Nicaragua, in Afghanistan, and other places, to fight back Soviet expansionism. That's what we should be doing today, following the Reagan policy. And that's where our party should be.

Ronald Reagan was no isolationist. He believed in this battle between democracy and tyranny. And it still is today, so many years later.

So, Mark, let's play this out. The Russians put all their 150,000, they probably got more. They're begging now for Belarus troops, for Syrian terrorists, to all come and help them out. There's going to be a draft conscription day is April 1st. That means a lot of people's time is up, and a lot of others have to go in.

Will they go in? Will they actually be allowed to leave? There's a story now. On Drudge, that I got to find out the publication, that these captured Russian soldiers are threatening Putin. You made us do things that were like this.

We're going to make you pay for making us do that.

So I find this whole, how this plays out down the line is more than just the Ukraine. And I just talked to Dan Hoffman. He does not believe Ukraine should even allow for them to stay in Donbass and Korea, excuse me, and Crimea. He doesn't, you know, let alone hold the lands they've gained. Yeah, I think we need to give them the weapons they need Yeah.

defeat Russia. Not not to come to some stalemate with Russia. There is no explanation for what is happening in Ukraine right now. If you just look at a uh if you went to West Point and sat down with military strategies and look at the forced uh forces on paper, Kiev should have fallen year Kiev, I should call it the right thing. Kiev should have fallen weeks ago.

Why is this happening? One, because the Russian army is not what it's made out to be. Its capabilities are rusted and weak. And two, their forces are not motivated. The Ukrainians are motivated because they're fighting for their very lives.

They're fighting for their families. They're fighting for their country. The Russians don't want to be there. They don't want to be doing this. They don't understand why they're dying.

So, this is they are the ones who are overmatched because they don't have the will to fight. Will is the most important thing in battle. And so, yes, of course, Ukraine can win this thing. And it would be great for the entire world because if Ukraine succeeds, then guess what? You had in your number two of your top three was that the Chinese were thinking about going after Taiwan in November.

Do you think that Xi Jinping isn't calling in his generals right now and saying, You better have a plan to not screw this up the way the way Putin screwed up ti uh Ukraine. Do w what are our force structures? We we're hearing reports in in uh in from Ukraine that they're like they he's ordering tank battalions. He's saying send thirty tanks over here and there's only five tanks in the battalion because The generals were cl were stealing the money. How does Xi even know that he has the military forces that the PLA tells him he does?

Th so they they have to be thinking twice and only and they will definitely think twice if they see the us arming the hell out of Ukraine, Russia defeated, massive economic sanctions that have made Russia a pariah and turned Putin into into Kim Jong-un, right? He she doesn't want to be Kim Jong-un. That's what he would be if he invades Taiwan.

So, this is a demonstration. to prevent war in the Pacific from breaking out the way it's broken out in Europe. No, I hear you. That's why I think the ripple effect is, and the fact that they're having a meeting now, that President Xi is meeting with President Biden, could be sending a message going to Richard Haas, foreign policy expert for some, Richard, to Russia that our relationship isn't without fault. And if you are China, the more you read about China, their economy is not going great, growing at 5 percent, but was growing at 17 percent.

They have huge unemployment. All the crackdowns on their entrepreneurship and the privatization that is now going away to nationalization of their industries is causing a flat line on motivation and their economy, let alone being getting hit by the Omicron variant, harder than even the initial wave of the pandemic that they inflicted on the world.

So, if you think that it really works to China's best interest to start getting even secondary sanctions from the West, which is more galvanized than ever. Than I can remember in 30, 40 years, I think that there's a lot of reasons for China to rethink their best buddy ship. one hundred percent. And this is why it's in our national interest. for for Putin to lose in Ukraine.

It's in our national security interests. Forget the emotions, forget the moral interests. for anything uh forget the the the images you saw that that uh Zelensky showed yesterday of children children's bodies being pulled from the rubble and build high rises being uh being destroyed and and all the rest of that. Forget all of that. Just from a pure national security interest, it is in our interest for this to be stopped.

Because the lesson of the Reagan presidency and peace through strength, and quite frankly, the Trump presidency and peace through strength. Is that you have to be strong and people have to believe that you're willing to use force in order to deter people? Just withdrawal and weakness doesn't do the trick. Allowing dictators to roll through, this would have never happened if Donald Trump was president, honestly. I mean, is it a pure coincidence that Putin invaded in 2014 under Obama and in 2022 under Biden, but did nothing for the four years of the Trump administration?

It wouldn't have happened. Why did they invade in the first place in 2014? Because Obama didn't enforce his red line in Syria. Do you remember this whole scenario where he promised that if Assad used chemical weapons, that would produce military strikes, and then Assad did it anyway? And you know who he turned to to get him out of it?

Vladimir Putin, Sergei Lavrov, and John Kerry negotiated a deal where Russia would take serious chemical weapons. And guess what? They might use them now in Ukraine.

So that so and that was what prompted him to go in the first place, the weakness. Ju Donald Trump came in, and what did he do when s when Assad used chemical weapons? He whacked him. And then he used them again, and what did he do? He whacked him again.

And when Iran when he drew a red line and said to the Iranians, You don't you kill a single American, there'll be a price to be paid, and they did it. He whacked Costum Soleimani. That's how you project strength in the world. If you just project weakness and withdraw and are not willing to do that kind of thing, then dictators will run rampant, war will break out everywhere, and China and Russia will dominate the world. That is not in America's national interest.

So I asked General Keen what it means for China and Taiwan, and he says: Number one, we're too slow. The sanctions are taking too long to implement. General President Zelensky said the same thing, but said this about what we should do right now with Taiwan, Cut 48. We have to do more for Taiwan than what we're doing. Two things need to happen in that region.

Upgun Taiwan as much as we possibly can and get our allies to cooperate. And believe me, our allies are going to be more motivated by what's taking place, certainly in Ukraine. And the thing is, they're now pledging, and I imagine maybe executing more money into their defense. And the reason why I believe it now, while people laugh me off when I say that, is because their population sees, especially Eastern Europe, sees the danger, which is Russia. You can be vulnerable and invaded unless we take responsibility for our own defense.

And I hate to say it, we can't count on an American president to run and watch our back all the time. Yeah, I mean, look, Taiwan's got to be looking just as mainland China is looking at Ukraine and scratching its head about what it could do, the Taiwanese are looking and saying, the Ukrainians have been left to fight alone, or are we going to be left to fight alone?

So they're obviously worried. Here's what we need to do in Taiwan, honestly. Number one, one of the greatest things Donald Trump did was withdraw from the INF Treaty, which was the intermediate, which banned intermediate-range missiles, which are both nuclear and conventional missiles. China is not part was never a party to that treaty, so it's been building intermediate range missiles that it can use to strike Taiwan. We need to start deploying intermediate range missiles in Guam, in Japan, all over the Pacific to be able to take out those batteries in the mainland.

And then, second of all, why is Putin going after Ukraine but not against the Baltics, not against Poland yet? Because of the Article V commitment, the Article 5 guarantee keeps the peace. We have a policy of strategic ambiguity in Taiwan. We should have a policy of a sea of strategic clarity. If China invades, the United States will come to Taiwan's defense.

That will deter China from ever doing it because it'll be a guarantee of a war with the United States. And I want Sweden and Finland to be offered NATO membership, and maybe this time they say yes. And you know what they say in Kyiv? What? When the war is over, NATO can apply to join Ukraine.

Mark, I look forward to your next column, your next appearance. Thanks so much. Take care. Bye. Back in a moment.

Learning something new every day on The Brian Kilmead Show. Hey, it's Will Kane, co-host of Fox and Friends Weekend. Join me as I share my thoughts on a wide range of topics from sports and pop culture to politics and business. The Will Kane Podcast. Subscribe and listen now at FoxNewsPodcasts.com.

If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead. The old goal that blows me away is that, you know, we're watching this happen and the country is coming together in many cases looking at the Ukrainian situation. And at the same time, the President of the United States is using this opportunity to play partisan politics. He's saying, well, because of the war that Ukraine is dealing with with Russia's invasion.

That's why oil prices are so high. That's why everything's more expensive when you go to buy it. That's why gas is so high. It's because of Vladimir Putin and gouging oil companies, forcing everybody to say, wait a second, you're dividing us again. Radio that makes you think.

This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Here at home, the toll of the war is having an ever greater impact on the U.S. economy with soaring inflation and gas prices.

Meanwhile, that war in Ukraine is having quite the impact here at home, where just about everything is costing more these days. They are blaming Biden for rising gas prices.

Meanwhile, guess who gets off scot-free? Not just Putin, but the big oil and gas companies. Higher gas prices is a small sacrifice to make compared to what the brave Ukrainians are going through. The American people are behind this. Yeah.

more likely are willing to take A hit at the palm. All today show hosts and anchors just speculating, oh, excuse me, saying exactly what the administration told them to say, but it's not based on fact. But I don't want to lead the witness. My next guest knows a lot about dollars and cents and holding the country's checkbook, former chairman of Ways and Means, Congressman Kevin Brady, now ranking member. Congressman, what is your take on how the media is spinning for the White House?

Yeah, hey, good morning, Brian. Thanks for having me on. As always, Uh look, it's it's embarrassing uh because the President himself uh admitted a few months ago i can't do much about Those are set on the world stage.

So it's just in the thought that this is, as Speaker Polls called, Putin's tax. On fuel, when the fact is, Americans know this. We've had a full year of raging inflation under Joe Biden, including gas prices. is food, housing, everything else. Yeah.

These prices are crushing. families. and workers and small businesses.

So much so. You know, the past three years under President Trump, You know, people saw wage gains. getting ahead significantly every year because paychecks We're growing twice as fast. Yeah. So all that's reversed and now Americans have had three years Yeah.

Wiped out in the first year under Biden. And then the worst news, I think, well, two points. One, inflation is accelerating in America. It was effectively. double digit last month and and could get uh worse.

And secondly, This year, we thought twenty-one was bad under this president, and twenty-two People's Pages. Are buying less, the biggest drive. Since America began recording this data, that's how hard families are getting hit.

So I Predict this whole blame everyone but themselves just isn't going to work for this president. People are smarter than that. And not only that, they're vilifying oil and gas. It should be leaned on right now to make up for Russia's absence and, of course, Iran's continuing decline. And Venezuela doesn't have any infrastructure.

In times of emergency, they're begging Saudi Arabia, cutting a side deal with Venezuela. Here's what Jen Saki said: she's not only not going to ask to drill more, she wants to blame them. Cut 30. No one should capitalize on Putin's aggression by taking advantage of American families. And this chart, which you see here, shows both the price of crude oil, and you see where it is as it relates to the price of gasoline.

And as you've seen it go down, the price of gasoline obviously has not gone down.

So when the barrel of oil drops from day to day, why don't we see the oil gas go down day to day? Yeah, because the price set on the world stage will vary and price spikes will happen. But as those prices lower over time, as the per barrel cost is, price spreads... go down too, just not like on a daily basis, and that makes sense. If you're getting your oil and gas from around the world, as America does, but how Yeah.

Just face up to this is to make a simple a policy. We're going to replace Russian oil, every bit of it, with made in America energy. The Keystone pipeline alone would supply more just from Canada. the U.S. than we buy from Russia.

We could become energy independent again. Uh Yeah. Just ending the war, the Biden war, on American-made energy.

So, I'm going to add to that.

So, people like me who are not in the business and don't have the country's checkbook and spending plan like you did are saying, okay. Why is it that the deficit got cut in half? Why did we have all these jobs? And why is inflation going up along with now interest rates for the first time in years? First off, how did we cut the deficit?

Yeah. So one, actually in the inflation we're seeing is driving up uh the cost of government it becomes Because our budget is based. on the the cost of living Those are automatic increases, so you got to get inflation under control. You've got to understand that most of our spending is automatic spending. on Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, food stamp issues.

Yeah. So, tell you Republicans, when we acted to refuel Obamacare and replace it, actually did the first reforms of Medicaid. put it more on a financial uh footing, sound for the country. It it didn't get through the Senate, but uh that was the first real reforms of entitlement in a long time. And there's no question when R Republicans take over the House and hopefully the Senate as well, We're going to have that serious conversation.

about how you save Social Security Medicare. Uh, for the long term, because right now In about Brian, in about five. Five and a half years. The main Medicare trust fund, which is for hospitals that seniors use, goes bankrupt.

So if Congress thinks Mm-hmm. you know, having these conversations and working together, the truth is we can. No, there's no doubt about it. I mean, we have to address it, but it's not popular to do because most people say if you have to cut, that you don't like old people, don't get that man or woman elected. I also don't feel comfortable with oil companies being vilified like they're tobacco companies.

You know a lot of these men and women. Can you get them out in front to defend themselves about the thousands of leases they're not using and the reason why, how much more they can be pumping and not, and what that means for the market? Even if it doesn't start today, the market reacts to what it will do, right? Thank you. So, what we know is whenever an administration signals balanced regulation and a green light for American-made energy, you see that exploration, you see more investment in pipelines, you see more investment in refineries, and in how we get that oil and gas out.

the country the northeast and the north west because They've made themselves vulnerable to Russian and foreign-made energy. Secondly, there's 100,000 wells. pumping as you and I are talking right now. In oil on federal lands. There are a small percentage, nine thousand.

Who the leases have been bought, but they don't have the permits yet. They haven't been able to put the equipment in the ground. Takes in many ways, many times, a lot of approvals before they can even start that process. could help unlock that nine thousand just by stopping the war that he's got going.

So yeah, there's some smart things they could do to Okay. Be more energy independent, but they're beholden to the Green New Deal. It's religion, and they're not backing. And they're making the same mistakes Jimmy Carter and others, which is the Depending on foreign oil.

So, when you look at depending on foreign oil, we would shake our heads, and Trump especially, and say, why is Germany doing this? Why is the UK buying so much? And we get 3 percent, but with their number one customer.

So, why are they doing that? It seems as though they've woken up. I hear the German energy secretary or equivalent of was in Norway. They're looking to talk. We had Boris Johnson over in Saudi Arabia.

They see an urgency to get off Russian oil and put more money in defense. You have been frustrated by this before. Do you think the Europeans understand they're propping up an evil empire if they continue the way they're doing it? Have they had a come to Jesus moment? Brian, I think they have.

And everyone's been telling them this for years. And as countries like Germany, you know, walked away from one of the cleanest, most Safe. nuclear nuclear programs In the world, walked away from that clean energy to make themselves dependent on Russia. Yeah, I think they finally realized the danger of their path. and are taking uh But But we're not in the US.

And it's just frustrating to repeat the mistakes of Europe and America in the past. you know, the Biden folks, they're just look, the Green New Deal is there You know, is their doctrine and they're not moving off it, even if it makes us less safe. Congressman Kevin Brady, thanks so much. Thanks. Take care, Brian.

All right, you got it. 1-866-408-7669. I promised in the past to make you call, but we're going too long with the interview segments. This one, I gave you some time, so I'm going to hear from you next. Or if you want to write me, go to my website, briankilme.com, hit on comments, and it'll go to my email.

This is the Brian Kilmey Show. Diving deep into today's top stories, it's Brian Kilmead. Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. You're an ordinary Russian woman who worked for.

State television, you have two children. What on earth made you do this? How did you decide to do it? You know, I decided to do it spontaneously. But the decision was brewing for quite a long time.

You know, lately I have been feeling a cognitive dissonance more and more between my beliefs and what we say on air. Yeah. It was a growing sense of dissatisfaction that kept increasing every year, and the war was the point of no return, when it was simply impossible to stay silent. And I realized that I would either need to do something Or we will reach a point a point of no return and it will be more and more difficult to do anything. And you and you talk about somebody who's courageous.

That is Marina Ostikokova. I probably messed up her last name, but she's the Russian who walked down with that oak tag sign that said they are lying to you and said something about the war. And they immediately put her on trial and she had a day in court and she got out, I guess, for now. And now she's speaking to CNN. You know who she is.

And now she's telling you why she did it. And she took tremendous risk in doing so. Usually you take tremendous risk by losing your job. She's talking about losing her life and not seeing her kids. Cut 26.

I'm sorry, to cut twenty-seven. I was afraid until the last minute that I won't be able to do it, that it won't have the effect that I was expecting because the newsroom on Channel 1 is a huge open space, open plan area. And I was planning to stand back, but then I realized that I would not be visible and the directors will change the layout very quickly. I'll be arrested and it will over at once. Uh but eventually I watched um the scene technically and thought how to organize it correctly.

And uh right in the last minute I decided that I would be able to overcome the guard um who is stands in front of the studio and uh stand behind the the host.

So I moved very quickly and uh I passed by the security and uh showed my poster. How great is that? And now his own troops are witnessing, are saying a warning in the Daily Mail to British newspaper. Russian soldiers warned Putin, we will rise up against you after they were able to, after they were made to carry out terrorist acts in Ukraine and label Maropol hospital bombing, a perverse neo-Nazism. That's what they said they were told to say, but they don't believe it.

And I guess some could say they're doing it under duress, but it doesn't look like it if you see them. They've laid the blame at the feet of the Russian commanders for horrifying crimes against peaceful Ukrainian civilians. I don't know what can justify the effing tears of a child or even worse, the deaths of innocent people. This, according to Russia fighter pilot who spoke to the Daily Mail reporter, CNN reported that the three pilots appeared not to be speaking under duress, that they were not wearing handcuffs, and the Ukrainian officials made no effort to direct their topics or the interview. It came after Russia on March 9th bombed a maternity hospital in Maropol, killing.

Four people, including a pregnant woman. We all saw that. It's the latest of the string of incidents that have to undermine Russia's claim its focus is on shelling strategic military sites. Nobody believes it. It's up for the Russian people to understand it.

I understand there's a big push now among civilians to get the true story to Russian individuals through various websites and through text messaging to show them. The question is: do you believe something that comes on a text message unsolicited from an outside source? But I just think that with the Ukraine, And being so close and being these countries, according to Vladimir Putin, are so intermingled. How long do you hold this a secret unless you're for it?

So now it's up to President Zelensky to prosecute his case, for the Ukrainians continue to hold out, for him to continue to try to get weapons, money and support from the West, and for others to get off oil and gas, especially from Russia. Germany's beginning to get the wake-up call. The UK has got the wake-up call. Will the rest of Europe get the wake-up call? Nigel Farage from Britain, he was the founder of the Hope Brexit cause, said this, CUT23.

That is delusional. And that's about the politest word I can find to describe it. We are going to need whatever advances come with renewable energy, we will need oil, gas, and coal for many, many years to come. And if these idiots think that by having gas, oil and coal produced, whether it's in Russia or Saudi Arabia or somewhere else, and then shipped to your country, if they think they're saving the planet doing that, actually they're increasing carbon dioxide emission output. They're just not doing it at home.

True. That's what we think. That's what you think. Believe it or not, Democrats feel differently. They think it's an opportunity now to start going off oil and gas and get into renewables.

Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of Energy, CUD 32. This crisis. In Europe and the crisis our allies are facing, and the reduction of supply of natural gas and oil from Russia. creates a moment that we should be acting. I mean, we heard President Zelensky, we do not want to see any country that is held hostage to Vladimir Putin, and this is a moment for Congress to be able to act.

There can be a compromise. There can be movement on this. And whether it's, you know, I mean, what the form is and Sponsors are and all of that, that's a conversation that's happening. But the bottom line is, this is a moment. to have this happen.

It's an urgent moment. Yeah, it's not for renewables. You know, as for all of the above, if there's RD that's going to get us to batteries and clean energy, let's do it. Let's do it quick. We'll be first anyway.

But we know that all batteries are 65% of all battery technology electric cars fueled by fossil fuels, whether it's coal or something else. That's what it is. And we know that battery storage, we have nowhere once these batteries go dead to actually put them into a landfill because they're basically poisonous. There's only one place that actually recycles these batteries, so they bring in all these other challenges. Why are you pretending as if someone still used a gas or diesel vehicle that they're selfish?

It's not the case at all. At all.

So they want to vilify the gas and oil companies in America by saying that they're trying to get too many profits, and when oil goes down, that gas should go down that same day. That's just not the way it works.

So they want to blame other people for it. Which is not really bringing the country together. That's pretty clear. And number two, they don't want to go ahead and pump our own oil, which has been updated on a regular basis. Here's Jensaki, cut twenty-nine.

When it comes to oil and gas prices, many accept that gas prices rise quickly but fall slowly, the so-called rockets in feathers phenomenon. But President Biden rejects that. Americans deserve relief and fast as oil prices fall. Retail gasoline prices are updated at least daily, and if gas retailers' costs are going down, they need to immediately pass those savings on to consumers.

So I will reiterate what the President said to oil and gas companies last week. The invasion of Ukraine and the volatility of the oil market is no excuse for excessive price increases, profit padding, or any effort to exploit American consumers. Why does this guy hate business as much as the military? All we have to do is make a call and find out what's going on. Find out how oil and gas works.

You said you drove a truck, a diesel truck, one prime. That doesn't make you a trucking expert. It certainly doesn't make you an oil and gas expert. And no one expects you to be. But why have your press secretary say that?

Calling out oil companies again when we could actually be calling on them. do something patriotic. Thanks so much for listening to the Brian Kilney Show. Keep it here. And don't forget: One Nation, 8 o'clock Saturday night, Fox News channel.

Live from the Fox News Radio Studios in New York City, fresh off the set of Fox and Friends, it's America's receptive voice. Brian Kill Me. Thanks so much for being here, everybody. It's the Brian Kill Me Show coming to you from Crime Ramage, New York City, prepared and probably having the St. Patrick's Day Parade right now.

First time in two years. It's such a big holiday. I think it's bigger here than Ireland. Maybe Boston's bigger, but the city's bigger. We'll see how they party and see if I'm serious.

There is more homeless. And the thing is about homeless, there was a time in which someone was homeless, and you go, wow, this person hit bad luck. There's more violent homeless than I've seen in my lifetime here. And I lived in LA for a while.

So talk to Steve Harrigan about real violence and real risk. And that's happened, as you know, in Ukraine right now. Probably the most dangerous place on the planet. He survived it. Our crew got hit.

We lost two lives. And we have Benjamin Hall struggling for his, but he seems to be stabilizing out of the country. And then Admiral James Darvitis, he was former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.

So let's get to the big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three, here at Hong Kong. The whole of the war is having an ever greater impact on the US economy with soaring inflation and gas prices.

Meanwhile, that war in Ukraine having quite the impact here at home, where just about everything is costing more these days, they are blaming Biden for rising gas prices.

Meanwhile, guess who gets off scot-free? Not just Putin, but the big oil and gas companies. How'd they pull that off? Totally vilifying the wrong people. Media on board, accepting the democratic blame game, blaming inflation and gas and oil prices on Vladimir Putin.

But are the American people buying that? Oh, yeah. And what do you think about those high prices? Who is to blame about that?

Well, those are oil and gas companies. Go figure. Number two. I think Taiwan is certainly watching that. I'm confident that the Xi Jinping's not only watching what's going on in Ukraine today, but he's watching us sit at a table in Vienna while the Russians are killing innocent women and children.

It's just crazy. And sitting at Vienna trying to get an Iranian deal, they know they're going to cheat on. We're not even dealing directly with China. As President Biden and President Xi are scheduled to talk, there are reports that China was planning on taking Taiwan this fall. But what does the Russian ill-fated invasion and newfound pariah status do to that plan?

Number one. But any people, and even more so the Russian people, will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors. I am convinced that such a natural and necessary cleansing of society will only strengthen our country. Really? That's Vladimir Putin.

No ground gained. That's the story in the Russian War of Choice versus Ukraine. Russia is haphazardly barbarically bombing cities from afar, aiming for schools, hospitals, apartment buildings.

Meanwhile, there's an effective counter from Ukraine, and more help might be on the way in terms of actual weaponry. With me right now, Steve Harrigan saw it up close and personal before, after, and just recently got out. Steve, glad you're okay. What do you think from afar about this war, and how are we covering it? It's hard to shake it, Brian.

It's hard to shake the sadness of it. The pictures keep coming in, and civilians are getting killed. We know it. personally now, we lost two of our own and one injured.

So, I think we're really feeling the pain and the sadness. Even if we're safe over here in the U.S., it's just agony watching civilians, old people, get hit by the Russians. Purposely. When we do it, there's an accident, an investigation, people are fired, vilified, trials. Here it's an intention, it seems, Steve.

It's deliberate. It's terror. It's trying to crush them with very crude weapons that kill civilians. And military alike. It's uh You know, we're just watching it day after day.

This is week three now, Brian. Do you think from what you can tell us, Steve, about how Benjamin Hall and his crew, Pierre and Sasha, were they targeted? I don't know the details, but You know, Pierre is you know, I dreamed about him last night. I was with him in a lot of different places. I was with Pierre Zach in Ukraine, Congo, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Venezuela.

He was the best.

Sometimes you're around people and they're better than you. and it might bother you, but the way he had with people and his kindness He was better than me, and I just like to watch him in action.

So he was a cameraman, but he was also a producer. He knew how to handle tumultuous situations, had a great way about him. He did everything. He was running the show over there with fixers, with money, with hotels, with logistics. And he was careful and he was not a A cowboy he was.

He'd been in so many bad places. And he's the guy you want to be with because he's calm, he's compassionate, he's orderly. I mean, the guy was a force, and it's a real blow. I really feel this personally, like so many people at Fox do today. Absolutely.

Uh and Benjamin Hall, can y I hear that he's stable right now and they've they've managed to get him out of the country. I saw him before he went in. I came out and he was going in, and I asked him. Did security, you know, did they try and scare you? Did they give you the word?

He said, Oh, yeah. He knew what he was going into. I spoke to him. He had no doubts about what he was going into. There are people.

Who work at this company who are willing to put their life on the line, a lot of them. to try and do the story. And He had no doubts about what he was doing. And I looked at him and just thought, wow, there he goes. You know, this is a brave guy who knows what he wants to do.

You know, it's also interesting, and I never thought about it really until this this news came out, this tragic news came out, is that you're embedded not with the American forces. You're not also embedded with the one that's was more powerful. You're embedded with the Ukrainian Sometimes civilians in a hotel, hardly a bastion of security. What was that like not being guarded by American troops? you know, it's easy to think about, oh, it's a war zone like other war zones.

This is a war zone that's different than other war zones. Because first of all, when it comes to power, you're on the wrong side. You're on the side without the air power. You know, if you're going to embed, you want to be on the side with air power so you don't get bombed. But on the other hand, the stronger side in this, the Russians, are indiscriminate.

Not only do they have sophisticated weapons, but they are targeting civilians and they are creating terror. The other factor about this war zone that makes it different Is that all kinds of people are being armed? There's basically been a call from the Ukrainian government: come over here. From any country, we're going to arm you. The Russians doing the same.

So there's the chance of a mishap, the chance of an accident, the chance of someone nervous without discipline just firing away at you. in a soft shell vehicle is astronomically higher in this kind of a war zone.

So right now, we're seeing reports of a mini counteroffensive by the Ukrainians. They have not lost one major city outside Kherson, and I hear there's some protest in that city even today.

So the Russians' answer is just try to flatten everything. Um Is ti is time on either side side? I think you're right that the strategy now is just to flatten it as the world watches. And the behavior of the Ukrainian forces, military and civilian, has been remarkable. You know, we're putting The US and others are putting the weapons in their hands, these javelins you know, anti-tank missiles that can be fired by one person.

But it takes the courage of that one person to go up against a tank at fairly close range, and they are doing it.

So they are holding off. No major cities really Other than where you mentioned have been taken. This is three weeks now they haven't taken Ukraine. The time line for Russia, their economy has been hurt. But Putin is not, in my view, having seen him flatten other cities, he's not going to stop.

until Ukraine is flattened. But he is, seems to be, and I get him susceptible to reports. He seems to be running out of troops. He's running out of armament. If that is true about China asking for money and arms, that shows his desperation.

The fact that he's asking Syrians and maybe Hezbollah to come back and help him, that could show his desperation. I think you know this: April 1st is Conscription Day. That's when a lot of people no longer have to serve after their year, and a whole bunch of others sign up and go to war. There might be a chance in Russia, these guys are not going to show up. I think both sides are racing against the clock.

I think. Ukraine is racing just to survive, to hold out in basements and to defend especially their capital. And they've been heroic in doing that. Russia is facing different problems. Men and manpower, pressure from people, and economic pressure.

A lot of people over there, the middle class, has lost a ton of money, and people are fleeing the country.

So, you know, it's really both sides are up against the clock, and which side has the endurance to hold out. The one factor I think that is a stable. factor that you can't bet against. Is Putin is going to keep going? Putin doesn't care about civilian casualties.

Putin wants to crush Ukraine, he wants to crush that capital. That's a factor that I believe is unchanging.

So the only thing that would change is if he starts losing ground, right? Right. If people rise up against him in the cities, if the middle class rises up against him in protest, if the mothers of dead soldiers rise up against him. But that's a longer-term issue, I think. I think, you know, for another three weeks, another two months, he can continue to pound away and kill civilians.

Right. And see if he pays the price, too. Because you see some of these numbers. The U.S. is saying that he's lost 7,000 people.

The Ukrainians say 13,500.

So that's pretty significant. Here's his remarks yesterday as translated, cut one. But any people, and even more so the Russian people, will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and simply spit them out like a fly that accidentally flew into the mouth. Spit them out. I am convinced that such a natural and necessary cleansing of society will only strengthen our country.

He's angry, he's using style-like terms, he's talking about cleansing. He also seems to be talking about the domestic situ situation, right? And it is, this is scary talk. You know, there's been a lot of talk about Nazis in this war, a lot of accusations from the Russian side. that the Ukrainians have a past history supporting the Nazis.

If anyone is talking like a Nazi today, If anyone is talking like Hitler today, It's Vladimir Putin. He's talking about purification and cleansing of the Russian people. That's got to scare the entire world. Here is Keith Kellogg about what you just said, leveling these cities and how it's just not good strategy, Cut 18. He is creating generational hatred, what he's doing right now.

And if I had to write a book on this campaign right now and title it, it would be out of the Forrest Gunt movie, Stupid Is as Stupid Does. Shelling those cities is just absolutely stupid right now because one, he's creating rubble, and you never want to fight in rubbleized cities. He's getting absolute hatred of the Ukrainian people. And it just makes no sense to me. He's not going to take Kyiv.

It's a huge city. It's a 2,000-year-old city. And they're not going to give up. They're just not going to quit on him. I think it's reaching a point right now, if this was a prize fight.

Putin's losing on points. Do you want to challenge him on any of those points? You know, he's right on a lot, and he knows more than I do. He's right on generational hatred, and he's right on rubble. A much smaller example of this, about one fortieth the size, was Chechnya.

Where he rubbed the city of Grozny, four hundred thousand, not three million. But twenty years later, you have to ask yourself, did this brutal strategy of slaughter and rubble work? And in Chechnya, the war is over. He's in control. He's got his strongman in place.

on a minor scale without help from Europe or the West. or the US, it worked in Chechnya. I believe that he thinks it can work again in Ukraine. Do you think he's surprised on any level on how inefficient and being kind his his military has been? I think he's surprised unnerved, unhinged and furious.

He's arresting some of his own top generals for their behavior. This is what happens when you've had yes men around you for 20 years and they tell you what you want to hear. When you're actually in the fight. and you don't have enough gasoline or food for your soldiers and they're getting slaughtered by Ukrainians. and they told you it was going to take two days.

You're furious. Right. Four generals, we understand, are dead. They even have the pictures of them. And as I just talked to General Petraeus, it's like not, it's very unusual to have a general this susceptible, but a lot of times they're forced to go to the front lines to find out what the problem is or show them exactly what to do.

And they're getting killed, almost like the British in the 1770s. I want you to hear, talk about courageous. This is Marina Astya Nakova. It's a tough one for me, not for you. I know you've got a history in Russia.

This is that journalist that stood up with the picture, that sign, she did an interview with CNN, which means she's out. The sign that said, don't believe what you're hearing about the war. Cut 26. You are an ordinary Russian woman who worked for state television. You have two children.

What on earth made you do this? How did you decide to do it? You know, I decided to do it spontaneously. But the decision was brewing for quite a long time. Lately, I have been feeling a cognitive dissonance more and more between my beliefs and what we say on air.

It was a growing sense of dissatisfaction that kept increasing every year. And the war was the point of no return, when it was simply impossible to stay silent. And I realized that I would either need to do something or we will reach a point of no return. And it will be more and more difficult to do anything. Can you put in perspective, Steve, how much guts that took to say, to go do what she did?

And the fact that she's out, does it surprise you? It surprises me that she's out. It surprises me that she's breathing. you get to moments in these upheavals Where people lose their fear and they don't care what happens to them. And it's amazing to see.

A lot of people have left state media. But there's two points here that I would get at. One is State media is incredibly effective. A TV station, you can brainwash a lot of people, especially older people, who just don't see the war. or who see it as an attack by NATO in the West trying to bring down Russia.

A lot of people believe that. The other thing here is by this woman's behavior, You gotta remember. that there's Putin and then there's the Russian people. And there's a lot of Russian people who are just being dragged along by this government and a lot willing to stand up against it despite the risk. And with Ukraine so close and with so many relationships so real between these two nations, ask Vladimir Putin how close they are.

I'm wondering how they own that can successfully lock up Facebook, lock up their T V networks, and really expect the truth not to get out. I understand there's a bunch of organizations texting individuals in Russia, trying to flood the zone. I think Instagram might still be up with what they say is the truth in the war. I mean, could that be one thing to I mean, they've already been, they say, arrests of between fourteen and seventeen thousand, and they're supposed to get ten years in prison for for protesting the government. You see how angry he is.

Final thoughts, Steve, on where you think the Russian w how much uh power the Russian people could have in this? You know, I think there's a bright light from all this evil and slaughter. And the bright light is a dictator who's been in charge for twenty years terrorize the world with aspirations to terrorize more of it is going to be brought down by his own arrogance. That's your prediction? Yeah.

Steve Harrigan, thanks so much. Glad you're okay. Do you have plans to go back? Yeah, I think it's going to last a while, and I think I'll go back. I would really like to go to Russia and watch that guy slowly be taken down by the Russian people.

I don't think they're going to be happy to see you, but you'll go in anyway. Steve Harrigan, thanks so much. Thank you. All right. 1866-408-7669.

What an account that is, Brian Kilmicho. Expanding your knowledge base, it's the Brian Killmeat Show. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead. All right, everybody, want to go along with Steve, but to get that first-hand account of life in Kyiv is pretty amazing, especially when a guy's been in so many war zones.

The first time we got him in a war zone, he was in Afghanistan. He switched from CNN to Fox, and we had our first foreign correspondent. You're talking about 2001 when Fox was just getting on his feet, only around for five years, used to more domestic issues like the Clinton dress mess and the election mess. Coming up next, Admiral James Stravitas. How has NATO come together as compared to when he was there?

Also, what's the next step in this war? He was plotting out. He did not think Zelensky was going to be able to hold out in the nation's capital. He's done more than that. The talk show that's getting you talking.

You're with Brian Kilmead. Nobody knows whether it may have already started and what is the possibility of this war if Ukraine will fall. In case Ukraine will fall, nobody would be able to predict when the full-scale war would start and how it will end. And who will put an end to that? Welcome back, everybody.

With me right now, not, of course, was President Zelensky through her translator saying. You know what's at stake, and this is so much bigger. That's been his prevailing message. Whether it's the UK Parliament, whether it's the U.S. joint session of Congress, the Canadian Parliament, and this morning, the Bundestag in Germany, it's not just about us.

Yeah, it's us directly, but we're fighting for so much more than that, and we have a chance to slay the Russian dragon. It's very always fascinating to talk to Admiral James Stravitas, especially as this conflict rages on and is taking on new character. He was the 16th Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. Admiral, welcome back. Uh I've been fascinated to see where you think this conflict is at right now.

The latest development has the Ukraine pushing back from some of the major cities, and they have not lost all but one major city. And over there, the Russians are having a hard time holding Kherson. Yeah, the Russians have really performed terribly in the battlefield, Brian, and you know this. They have been unable, as you say, to really take and hold a significant chunk of ground. They haven't really taken a significant city other than Kherson, which you mentioned.

They are reverting to almost 15th century style warfare, just sitting outside the walls of these cities, if you will, and pounding it with artillery without regard for where those shells are going. That's why civilians are being killed.

So they've resorted to war crimes in a nutshell. I think there's three reasons for that that are worth mentioning here. One is terrible logistics. They're just not able to get food and fuel and all the necessities of war forward. Secondly, low morale, clearly, a lot of conscripts, a lot of reservists.

And then third and finally, just Bad generalship. You know, they need Jack Teen over there if they're going to win anything because they have been unable to construct a battle plan. They've divided their forces too much. And now they're doing this pound away at the civilians.

So they've really performed poorly. And on the flip side, the Ukrainians have been magnificent, full of courage. And we need to do everything we can to continue to support them.

So when you know, you heard what Zelensky asked for. He said, I need more everything. I want a NoFI zone. I need those MiGs. I don't think you support a NOFI zone.

Do you support the MiGs looking two weeks from now? Two weeks ago, you were on the shelf on that. We thought they were getting them. Then things changed. Brian, I do not support a no-fly zone.

I think most analysts feel the same way. The risk of a collision too high. On the MiGs, from all I can see, I do support getting the MiGs into the game here. And I think there are ways to do that that would not put U. S.

in direct contention with Russian forces. If we're going to give the Ukrainians Stingers and javelins. I'm not sure I really see the difference in terms of giving them the MiG-29, which is a good, rugged fighter. It's not top of the line, but it would be very capable in that environment. It's not going to be a game changer, Brian, but A, it would be a huge morale boost to the Ukrainians, and B, it'll have real military effect, not a game changer.

They'll be able to fly at low level. They can go after targets like that convoy that sat in the open for a couple of weeks. Let the MiG-29 go after those kind of targets, fly low-level. I see it as something we should do.

So I'm looking right now at some of the reports from the talks. I guess they're in the fourth or fifth round.

So, this guy, Vladimir Medinsky, the Russians' chief negotiator, says Ukraine is offering an Austrian or Swedish version of a neutral, demilitarized state, but at the same time, a state with its own army and navy. Then Dmitry Peskov says the option could really. Be seen as a compromise. Ukraine then has rejected a Russian plan to become a neutral suite. They have come out and said, no, we didn't say that through the Daily Mail.

They rejected a Russian plan to become a neutral state like Sweden or Austria. If you're them and you negotiate, knowing women and children are dying at the same time you're seeing gains. Where do you stand on where the talks start if Admiral Stravitis is there? I would start them with a ceasefire, like both sides. Stop.

Number two, I would put at the top of the list in this moment, humanitarian aid. Let people out of the cities where they're under siege, get them food, get them water, care for the wounded. Those are baseline. Table stakes, if you will. Then I think where you try and take these talks, Brian, is a deal wherein the Ukrainians say, okay, we're going to withdraw our application to NATO.

And of course, that's a decision for Ukrainians to make, not for Americans and not for Russians, by the way. But let's say the Ukrainians were willing to stand down from their request to join NATO. Then I think you start to see a deal where they are a sovereign state. They have capable armed forces. You know, Sweden and Finland have two exceptionally good militaries.

They may be, quote, neutral, unquote, but they are highly capable. Same with Austria, by the way.

So I think there's a model out there. And it would, of course, require the Russians to stand down, withdraw their troops from Ukraine. And then you're into some interesting discussions about longer term. But I think the shape of the deal is there. And of course, if the Russians withdrew all their troops, then you can talk about lifting some, if not all, of the sanctions eventually.

All to be negotiated, but that's the package I would be pursuing. Would you say get out of Crimea, get out of the Donbass regions? I think if I were negotiating, I'd start with that, but you might have to fall off of a couple of points along those lines. And look, Brian, it could end up with a deal that everyone hates, which would be Putin would hate it that he didn't conquer the whole country. The West would hate it because Putin still had control over that sliver of Ukraine in the southeast.

The Ukrainians would hate it because it would memorialize the loss of Crimea, for example. But that's what dealmaking is. That's what diplomacy is, compromise.

So because Russia is a nuclear power, we're not headed toward an absolute surrender here the way we did in World War II. We've got to find some compromise and some negotiation. I think that's the deal that's shaping up.

Now, do you sense? I mean, there's no doubt about it over the last 20 years. Gradually, Russia's been a real cancer on society. Certainly with us, think about what they're going to do in the Middle East. Combine with Iran and with China, emboldened from this conflict, if that indeed the case, that would blow up the Middle East, the Far East, and make Europe an unstable place.

We have a chance to change all that. Do you think we'll regret not breaking through that window if we end early? Knowing the flip side is more women and children die and many risk their lives leaving, you know, trying to walk their way to a better life to try to avoid the killing, because Vladimir Putin might be in a more dire situation than even we imagine. Yeah. We ought to be concerned at a certain level about chaos coming to Russia if things truly fall apart because they have 6,000 nuclear weapons.

So that's not an argument for giving Putin anything, but it is an argument for coherent and prudent strategic thinking. To your first point, which is a very good one, where is China and Iran in all this? I think what we ought to be working on very hard is trying to peel China away from Russia. And as I watched the Chinese over the last three, four weeks, they're not exactly in full throated, yes, let's go, Vlad, you're doing a great job there. Hardly that at all.

Iran is a different kind of difficulty for the West and frankly doesn't have remotely the level of capability that China does.

So I think strategically, Brian, you want to work on pulling China away from Russia. And the way to do that is sanctions, threatening China with secondary sanctions if they take on products from Russia and supply Russia. And I know those conversations are going on quietly at this stage, as you would want to do, not in the bright lights of the media yet. But that ought to be our approach going forward. Keep China as far as we can from Russia.

Your point, focus on getting the best deal we can as Putin stands down. President Xi and our President are going to be speaking soon. Just to give you an idea of what they're saying, their Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs tweeted this out. While top U.S. manufacturers, U.S.

arms manufacturers boasted of the conflict in Ukraine being a boon for business. The American people are suffering from soaring prices and higher inflation. The Chinese ambassador to the U.S. calls threats against the Chinese entities and businesses over Ukraine unacceptable, denies supporting Russia. Wow, that's interesting.

And they also warned us we better not supply arms to Taiwan. Also, a report from a so-called whistleblower that China planned on taking Taiwan this fall, and this conflict has changed things. Do you want to talk about the complexities behind those statements? I will. I'll take the last one first.

I find it highly unlikely that China was planning to take Taiwan, end quote. Simply, Brian, because President Xi this year is looking to be re-elected to a third five-year term as the leader of China. He's looking for a relatively quiet year. He's not reveling in what's going on. And as I read the overall statements coming out from the Chinese, you quoted a couple of them.

There are also Statements they've made where they are highly in favor of sovereign control. And of course, this is a violation of sovereignty. This is an An invasion of another sovereign nation. That's quite different than the situation in Taiwan. We ought to kind of separate those two.

I, for one, don't think that China is going to make an immediate military move on Taiwan. It just doesn't fit the pattern. They're patient, they're going to wait.

Some number of years. Eventually, it may come to that. But for the moment, we ought to focus everything we're doing on support to the Ukrainians and pushing back on Vladimir Putin. Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. went on to say this in the Washington Post.

He said, We did not know ahead of time this was going to happen. You're just slinging mud at China. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine does no good for China. Had China known about the imminent crisis, we would have tried to prevent it, given the threats against China's entities and businesses, as uttered by the U.S. officials wielding the baton of sanctions on China.

He went on to say, China is the biggest trading partner of both Russia and Ukraine, the largest importer of crude oil and natural gas in the world. Conflict between Russia and Ukraine does no good for China.

Now, we know this thing's in those statements that just aren't true. They knew all about an imminent conflict. They saw 150,000 troops. They're the ones with a one-on-one meeting with Vladimir Putin right before the Olympics started.

So where's the truth in those statements? We do know the trade is real. Those trade statements are real with Ukraine. Indeed, they are, and I think there's leverage there. And by the way, what we have seen out of China thus far, they just haven't made a decision.

They're trying to play the ball, if you will, down the middle of the field right now. I think the United States is going to have to push them very hard. And if we do, I do not believe China is going to be Vladimir Putin's lifeline. They don't have. Have that kind of inclination.

On the other hand, you're correct, Brian. President Xi and President Putin seem to have a kind of a personal relationship. But I think there are larger geopolitical issues at work here. And China, in my view, is not happy with Russia right now and is not inclined to turn into their lifeline. Admiral, I just think it's worth stating an overarching umbrella statement.

When you guys go to war and you guys learn to fight, if there is civilians killed, there is an investigation, if there's a cover-up, those people are convicted, people are thrown out of the military. In the case of Afghanistan, checks and material are given to tribes. It's called a mistake. We have precision weapons for humanitarian purposes as much for achieving our goals. We are dealing with a country, evidently the second most powerful or third, that has such disregard for human life, their own, who they leave on the battlefield, and the ones they're fighting, who they arbitrarily.

Are targeting when they know it's women and children on the inside, apartment buildings, hospitals, schools. There has never before been such an obvious difference between societies and right now. And the American people have to know, who love to criticize their own country, the fundamental differences in the worlds in which we exist. Would you like to add or refute any of that? Oh, I agree one thousand percent, Brian.

And I spent thirty-seven years in uniform, many, many experiences in combat. And I will tell you, the top of my list was always to avoid killing civilians, collateral damage. When I led the war in Libya, and by the way, we put up a no-fly zone there quite effectively. Libya doesn't have nuclear weapons, different set of choices. But here's the point.

We did 25,000 sorties in Libya using precision guided weapons only because we were so concerned about the possibility of killing civilians. We had a couple of mistakes that were technical because of that, and we did exactly as you said. We investigated, we punished, we paid. And that's What we do. And so, for me, as a military officer, to watch what the Russians are doing is absolutely heartbreaking, and it is a stab at the moral fiber of the United States.

When we look and see that kind of behavior, you're right. We are better than that. Our military is better than that. And we ought to ferociously condemn Russia, and we ought to pursue the war crimes part of this as well. And is there any question why the Ukrainians look west and not east for their future?

I mean, come on. 100%. And I think in many ways, that was a precipitating factor. Putin did not want the example. Of a successful unified Ukraine because.

It would uh create Tendencies, shall we say, inside Russia, which would hurt his grip on power. And therefore, you've got to put that on the stack of war crimes of Vladimir Putin as well. Admiral, thanks so much. Each week I talk to you. I hope the war goes better and better for Ukraine.

It looked kind of grim a week ago.

So hopefully things will turn. Yeah. Go indeed.

Okay, my friend. Have a great weekend. Thanks, Admiral. Hey, when we come back, I'll take some calls. I'll get your input.

You'll listen to the Brian Kilmey show. Newsmakers and Newsbreakers, here at first on the Brian Kilmeat Show. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Killmead. With Soviet area aircraft, some people have advocated for that.

I believe that they would be helpful. Admiral Stav Ritas over the weekend talked about these and he said they provide a morale boost for sure and an increased capability. I agree with the increased capability and the morale boost. Absolutely. Additionally, it would allow the maintainers that are working on the Ukrainian aircraft now to have additional aircraft for floats and to cycle through the others through maintenance.

The more aircraft you have, the better off they can be.

So they can take take the offensive from the air against um the Russian uh capabilities that are in country.

So that was General DePasse from yesterday, and he was talking about Amos Travidas, who we just got on, who had commented on another network about the need for these M29s. And people just say, well, those don't be provocative. Does anyone buy that? Is that going to be provocative? Do you see the thousands of weaponry we're now mailing in there?

We're giving them $13 billion for aid as well as armaments. We're really worried about some F-29s or some MiG fighter jets. We just made too big a deal of it. My sense is we're going to keep it down. People are going to get briefed and they're going to get inside.

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