Putin Threatens Nukes as Russia Faces Fierce Resistance in Ukraine

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Visit Samsung.com to learn more about Galaxy Z Fold 4. From the Fox News Radio Studios in New York City, giving you opinions and facts with a positive approach. It's Brian Kilmead. All right, everybody, Brian Kilmead. Thanks so much for listening, everybody that filled in last week.

It's an exciting, important time because we have to find out what's happening in the Ukraine and find out if one of the world's biggest villains is finally going to meet his demise, and that is Vladimir Putin. My fingers are crossed, but so far it's perilous times over in the Ukraine. We'll talk about it with Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. He's going for six more years in the Senate. He's got some new legislation, and we're going to talk about that.

We're also going to talk to Barry Pavel. He served as special assistant for defensive policies and strategies on the National Security Council for George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

So we don't want to talk politics. We want to talk about the survival of Ukraine. Also, special thanks to a brand new affiliate. We're privileged to have in our expanding family, WHLO AM Akron, Ohio. Akron's News Talk 640 WHLO.

Welcome aboard. I hope you enjoy the ride.

So let's get started with the big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. Over the last couple years, Putin has been more and more isolated. I don't think he's a rational actor because he's fearful. He's out at his compound, doesn't come into town very much.

He's increasingly unhinged. He seems erratic. He's descending into something that I personally haven't seen before. That is kind of Lisa writes that last clip. What is it about Vladimir Putin?

Is he crazy like a fox or just crazy? The Western leaders who know him best feel he has lost it and is a different man. What are the options and who exactly is left where he can call a, who he can call a friend? Is it even China? Number two.

The fact that the sanctions have all of these loopholes is a big problem. What are we doing on the Russian Central Bank? What are we going to supply to the Ukrainians in order to support them? None of those questions have been answered. Daniel Pletko weighing in on meet the press.

The world responds in a massive way, but is it enough? And Russia is already feeling the financial pain. I'll get into detail. More importantly, so that the people of Russia are feeling the pain. The ruble is turning to rubble.

Number Wrong. Satellite images show a convoy that's more than three miles long of Russian trucks and artillery units headed toward the Ukrainian capital. This is significant because the concern amid the backdrop of possible negotiations succeeding is that the Russians would increase the amount they are shelling cities across this country. And that is Trey Yanks doing a great job. Russia versus Ukraine.

The latest from the battlefield is three small cities fall, Ukraine stands strong.

So what Trey was referring to was what's happening in Kyiv. There's a convoy 3.5 miles long that's getting closer to the city. They say it's within five miles of the city. Why is that significant? Because so far, they've been trying to take Kyiv for the last four days and they've been unsuccessful.

In fact, there's reports that they don't even get out of the car. These transport vehicles go through, they're either blown up or set back.

So another day they last and they and every day they last, they win. Although it's getting harder and harder to get supplies in, they get weapons in, and people like Mayor Klitschko. Quite worried. President Zelny, quite worried. Zvelny, quite worried, obviously.

And they're hoping for more help. And they're getting help. But will it be enough? All hands on deck.

Now we hear that Belarus is going to start using their troops to help Russia out. How pathetic. They got 190,000 troops going against 100,000 combined Ukrainian troops. These guys have been there for. Six months, and they need Belarus to help them out, and the people of Belarus want nothing to do with it.

It's just their leader that's sold out to keep his power, Lushenko, who would do that. That's pathetic. But I fear they're going For scorched earth. They're going just the things that we were condemned for doing when it happened by accident, they're going to be doing it intentionally. And that is just carpet bombing cities like we did in Berlin in World War II.

What is at stake?

Well, so far Vladimir Putin has Put together the worst battle plan you could imagine, trying to hit from four sides, didn't even have plans in place to resupply. His fighting machine as well as his people as well as the machines themselves, like with gas and oil. The rumor is they they rusted out a lot of it.

So, so far, there's three small cities that have fallen, and the number two city, Kharkiv, is under a thick attack right now as we speak. But so far, It's been Something that Has gained the Ukraine's performance, has gained the respect of the entire world. Outside Brazil, who's standing on the side, outside China, for the most part, is leaning Russia but is not speaking out in support of Russia. Even Turkey is going to enact a doctrine between Turkey and Ukraine that would have them limit the number of ships going through the Black Sea.

So even Turkey sees the error and folly of Vladimir Putin's ways. Here's Oksana Markova. She's a Ukrainian ambassador. Cut one. First of all, we have to understand here.

that neither NATO nor any other false pretext or lies that the Russian Federation government is spreading is the real reason why they attacked us. They attacked us because they always wanted to destroy us, because free, democratic and sovereign Ukraine is a threat to them. We're a peaceful country, we never attacked them, but they cannot allow us to be independent and just to live our own lives. That's why they attacked us in twenty fourteen. That's why for the past eight years they've done everything to pressure us into this, and that's why now they started the war.

They did, and they started a war, and everyone sees it. There was no reason for it. They're telling the people that. Ukraine is run by Nazis. Really?

The guy's Jewish. Number two is that there are a bunch of drug addicts. Where does that come from? What is this?

Some schoolyard bully pl uh playtime? Drug addicts and Nazis? By the sec only the one of two Jewish leaders in the world? And everybody knows Ukraine. In Russia, everyone knows a Ukrainian or has a relative who is Ukrainian, and vice versa.

They know they've done nothing. They want to be a European country. They don't want any part of Russia. Vladimir Putin just was on television for 90 minutes talking about how even Lenin made a mistake in letting Ukraine be its own country, and that Gorbachev obviously was part of the big problem that let them be their own country. And now they want to retain their own country.

They're still losing men of the Russians in the Donbass region, where the Ukrainians have lost 14,000. Over the last four years, since 2014. And Crimea, they're still not willing to give that back. They're still fighting to keep that to a degree, let alone these other regions. We'll give you the latest.

We'll bring it to the battlefield. When we come back, I'm going to examine the mental health of Vladimir Putin, who, by all reports, has been very isolated really since 2019 when COVID hit. The big tough guy, very paranoid about getting it. When we come back, we'll look at that as well as the sanctions with Barry Pavel, who has rich credentials as a key advisor to both Bush and Obama, then Ron Johnson. A lot to talk about, and we will get your calls.

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Subscribe and listen now at FoxNewsPodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Over the last couple of years, Putin has been more and more isolated. He's not been in the Kremlin for the most part.

I don't think he's a rational actor because he's fearful. He doesn't look very powerful. And this is going to jeopardize his ability to stay in power. That word rational actors are very elastic, right? He's out at his compound, doesn't come into town very much, and under COVID, he's been more isolated.

He's increasingly unhinged in the way that he talks about the regime.

Well, I met with him many times, and this is a different Putin. He seems erratic. There is an ever-deepening delusional rendering of history. He's descending into something that I personally haven't seen before. That is former Secretary of State Condelee Serai.

She probably recognized the voices. Just know the other voices are not of politicians, they're of people that have had some contact with him and can't quite figure out. why this guy is acting the way he is. Because you could be evil, but you could also be smart. This guy definitely is a demonic personality, but he's never been less than calculated.

I would say to be kind, he's less than calculated. What's the reality according to Barry Pavel? He served as special assistant for Defense Policy and Strategy on the National Security Council for Presidents George W. Bush and President Obama. Barry, welcome.

Where do you weigh in on what you've seen so far about Putin's behavior.

Well, thanks a lot. I think for many years, he was sort of calculating and somewhat strategic even if risk taking. And so I think you see go back to the invasion of Georgia in two thousand eight, the Crimea Sort of little green med, men kind of pseudo-invasion and occupation. further invasion to the Donbass later that year. But I think I take former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates' cue in terms of this year, and he said yesterday that he thinks he's gone off the rails.

I think that's true too. I think his decision making processes very uninformed. I think just like most dictators, His advisors are scared into saying what they think the boss wants to hear. You've seen videos of those sessions kind of chilling last week where he was cutting off and intimidating his his head of intelligence. across a very large room.

He's been isolated because of COVID. And so I think it's really anything could happen because he is not getting good information. He has an increasingly small circle of advisors. And he's not and it's just not something that I think we have to expect as a rational Decision maker going forward.

So we have to be careful, keep doing what we're doing, but I think we have to be. Quite agile in terms of how to handle what he might do next. I hear you.

So, Barry, let's look at it from his perspective. All right, I went into Georgia, a little blowback. First time it's been an invasion of territory, really, since World War II, not respecting their borders. But they said Shash Kavili is such a hothead, he baited them into it.

So, somehow, they were led to stay. And then they decided in 2012: I'm going to take the Donbass region. This Russian-speaking people, you're, and Crimea never should have been given away by Khrushchev. And he doesn't. And then in comes Kazakhstan, and they have trouble.

The leader has trouble. Can you help me out? He goes in, he takes it.

Now he's got another sphere of influence. Same thing happens in Belarus. That leader's about to be ousted. Lushenko says, Can you help me out? He says, Yeah.

So he's got this influence. He said, Now I'm going to go for the big one. It's always bothered me. Ukrainian. They won't come to the table.

They won't just give us this region. They won't just give us Crimea. I'm not afraid of this comedian. I'll go take him. And now he finds himself in the utter definition of a quagmire.

Do you see do you see them thinking like that? I think you largely have it right. My one caveat is it's still very early. We still have a lot of Russian Firepower that has yet to be brought to bear. I too share how it's not been going well for the Russians.

for lots of reasons. They haven't integrated their forces. They haven't assured Supply lines and lots of other observations about how poorly it's going, but This is really early still. We have a three-mile-long convoy of Russian armored vehicles outside of Kiev, according to certain reporting.

So we have to be really careful. Russia will escalate, Putin will escalate. I think that's very clear. And so we need to be plotting next steps and how we can. Uh protect in advance.

our collective interests, including those of the Ukrainians, In a way that minimizes the risks of escalation and protects our values and our interests. Barry Pavel is with us, who worked for Bush as well as President Obama. And we're watching video now, just in from Kharkiv, the second biggest city, and they're hitting them a lot harder, to your point. But it looks as though, Barry, I want to give you, let's fast forward this. If they continue to shell the city in a haphazard sea cities and haphazard way and taking out residence after residence and begin to essentially flatten these places because they don't want to get out of their vehicles and fight block to block.

What are our options? Because It is, you're seeing the protests around the world. We didn't ask for those protests. Governments aren't asking the Germans, the French. The Russians Uh the Ukrainians Even the Belarusians to protest in the streets, we had 40 in America against this aggression.

What do we do if the blood begins to really pour if Zavelny gets killed? Yeah, so I I think this is uh where things get uh much more difficult We have to be really careful that we don't instigate World War III. We're the United States' homeland, we're the homelands of. European NATO allies are put at significant risk as well. But we also don't want to be bystanders as an innocent democratic country.

Is completely flattened. And so I do worry that Russia, that the Russian military will use these Grozny tactics of just. leveling city blocks. And not caring at all about civilian casualties. And I think as those images if that happens and as those images cross our screens, the pressure to act, the public sentiment we already saw.

A poll, I saw a poll yesterday, something like 77% of those. asked, thought that it was kind of our fight and that NATO should get more involved. Even though Ukraine is not a formal treaty ally.

So I think we need to sort of really. Kind of up the investment, strengthen the weapons going in there. Strengthen the funding going in there, the humanitarian assistance wherever possible. But I think when you, there's a tip-over point when you start to put in. You know, American forces, NATO forces, that gets to, that's a different.

Situation.

So, are the Ukrainians doing well enough that what we're doing already is sufficient? We need to keep watching that, but I think if we if and when it gets to a much more difficult situation, we have a national conversation that we need to have happen, and that needs to happen really quickly. Hey, Barry, we have to have a national conversation about practicality. We keep pretending that these bad actors are going to be rational, that we're going to reset our relationships. They're going to understand me.

They couldn't understand the other person, but me, they'll understand. They were doing with China, we're doing with Iran, we did it with Russia. And now, by placating in 2008, we have an absolute mess in 2022. Do you believe the next leader of this country has to explain that in the world that we're in, the only one we know, that the only way to get through bad actors is through the strength of our military and a fear of reprisal, that we can't talk our way with an irrational person? Yes.

So I'm a big believer in particular in this crisis and have talked with colleagues that the only way to get through to Putin is to punch him in the nose. That said, it's been remarkable how the Europeans, including the new German government, Have really come together and stepped up in unprecedented ways, including Germany's announcement of its. new defense spending targets unprecedented again. But I think it took this kind of clear threat to unify the Allies. And I think it's less helpful if it's only the U.S.

You know, saying things, but uh, but I do agree, we should start connecting the dots a little more than we have. We've seen this uh particular uh movie before, and we didn't do as much about it as we should have, and so. How do we apply these lessons to Xi Jinping? As the really, really top priority by far, but also Kim Jong-un. And others.

So I think we really need to try to be a little clearer and a little stronger, as you suggest. Right. I just think that that's the foreign policy that's going to work. Not, you know, with Germany, it won't. They're an ally, even if we disagree.

But when you have these people that want to reconstitute a country that disappeared in 1991, we can't sit by and try to talk them out of it. I wish we lived in a different world, but we don't. Barry, it's always great talking to you. Great to talk to you, too. All right.

When we come back, Senator Ron Johnson, on how this all will play when they get briefed today and what he expects to happen at the State of the Union address, where the numbers look extremely strong at this hour for Republicans. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. So glad you're here. From the Fox News Podcasts Network. I'm Ben Dominich, Fox News contributor and editor of the Transom.com daily newsletter, and I'm inviting you to join a conversation every week.

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A radio show like no other. It's Brian Killmead. This is crucial because Vladimir Putin wanted to divide us. He viewed NATO as a weak entity and if it were divided, he could roll right through Ukraine and then right up to the border, maybe through NATO as well.

So that has been rebuffed. The fight certainly is on. I think, quite frankly, when it comes to nuclear weapons, you don't threaten the use of nuclear weapons if you think you're winning. No, you don't do that.

So it's a very solid front right now with NATO, and it's a very, very hard moment. But thankfully, we have some assets together that ensure that we are calm and we are going forward together. Senator Ron Johnson joined us now. That was Joe Rubin, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, talking about the scare tactic they use on Sunday. I hope it's a scare tactic.

That Vladimir Putin says, we're getting our nuclear arsenal ready. Really? Nice. Senator Ron Johnson joins us now. Senator, were you surprised to hear that statement from Vladimir Putin?

I was. let's face it, that's not something you say if you feel you're winning.

Now that's that's the statement of a loser. Uh I think we all understand exactly what kind of resources Vladimir Putin has. But as I've been pointing out, what are the Russian soldiers fighting for. The kleptocracy. the dictatorship, the tyranny that is Russia.

versus what the Ukrainians are fighting for. They're fighting for Their freedom. They're fighting for their families, they're fighting for their children, they're fighting for their future.

So I think Vladimir Putin miscalculated this probably of An understatement. I don't think he Even began to understand how ferociously the Ukrainians would defend their country and their families and their children. Um and I I also think he's finding out that his army's probably not uh as effective as he Assumed they were, and partly that might be because of just Russian soldier morale. I mean these are these are their You know, the Ukrainians and Russians are w w I will call them cousins, okay? Um So That's got to be a difficult order to follow because you're watering People that you have an affinity towards.

So I'm just hoping and praying. I'd ask all your listeners to pray for President Zelensky, who's shown. Uh True leadership, true courage. It's certainly, I think, one of the factors in in terms of why Ukrainians are are fighting. They've got a leader that's there.

That's uh Risking himself. Let's face it, he is the number one target. He's not leaving. And so you see a Ukrainian. Yeah.

heading back into Ukraine. To defend their country. It's inspiring. At the same time, it's just a horror show. It's just awful, these atrocities.

And let's face it, there's one group of people to blame here. And that is Vladimir Putin and his Kleptocracy and his cronies. They are now pariahs, they are now war criminals. They've always been murderous thugs.

Now they are full-fledged war criminals and You don't put that genie back in the bottle. Senator, the other thing's pretty clear. I like the fact that they exposed all this intelligence about the false flag and that they plan on attacking, and the day they did it. I think in the long run, that's a good move. I think it actually unnerved Vladimir Putin and maybe changed his strategy, which seems by military experts I had a chance to talk to, ridiculous.

He wanted to attack from four sides with a third of his forces.

Now, two-thirds are in their country, but the problem is they're not supplied effectively. They didn't plan it out right. Most of the people going in didn't even know about it. Instead of trying to take the capital and decapitate the regime that most people would do, sadly, even though I had not warranted to do so, they wanted to try to take four cities. They lost on every single one of them.

So having said that, we've responded with sanctions. And we're on the we won't have to the I I guess the Swift system And the Swift system on the surface seems like a great move. But the problem is with the implementation of it. And as people have brought up, like Andrea Mitchell, Hardy hardly a right wing zealot, the problem with going in there and on disaligning their Their assets or how they borrow money, we haven't gone through with it. Listen to what Andrea Mitchell said, cut 20.

What they did on Swift, there's still big holes. It's Swiss cheese, really, on SWIFT, because first they have to wait for the Belgian leaders, the board of directors, to approve it next week. They've got a big cutout for any banks that are involved in energy transactions.

So that's to protect Germany and Italy and others. And which banks are those? They could be some of the worst oligarch-controlled banks.

So let's wait to see exactly how it's implemented.

So you know business. You came from the business world. That's going to be key. The Treasury right now has nothing in terms of rules that are public about how they're adjusting.

Well, the reality situation is Russia supplies. a large percentage of the world's oil and gas supply. And countries want that oil and gas. They are dependent on it. Their populations are dependent on it.

And so we needed to recognize that. And we were kind of whistling by the graveyard thinking, oh, yeah, we're going to impose all these Uh horrific sanctions. One A lot of the countries, depending on that oil and gas, are going to say, well, hang on here, we still need oil and gas. I mean, you may have yours, but we need ours. And so that's a reality that I think has just been missed, and I don't think this administration was being honest about.

I think the biggest blunder, quite honestly, was just the reluctance Of the West, including the US, to fully arm Ukraine. I think I've heard this in my role as a. The chairman now ranks a member of the European Subcommittee on the Center of Foreign Relations. Germany for sure is always concerned about ramping up and providing too much military assistance to. to Ukraine because that would upset Russia.

Well, now they're realizing well that didn't deter That didn't really work out anyway.

Now we have to supply the brave Ukrainians with the weaponry they need to defend their nation, and we need to do it fast. I am hearing that we're not doing it quickly enough. We need to make sure that this administration responds rapidly. You know, Ukrainians can't wait. A couple days.

They need the arms now while the supply routes are still open before Vladimir Putin decides just an all-out bombing campaign. That's my concern. is right now he's probably still reluctant to do all out war, hoping to move in, decapitate through assassination the leadership. And just install his puppet regime and be accepted by the Ukrainian people. He's finding out that's not going to happen.

They hate him. And my concern is, he's not going to want to lose. and the horror that could follow Him, his desire not to lose could could be be pretty bad.

So we need to get. Armaments and munitions. Into Ukraine now. Yeah, they do. They might be doing scorched earth already, as predicted.

Get this. We're just getting this report from one of the reporters on the scene. The Ukraine says Russia has begun launching GRAD rockets, which are not precise by any stretch. They just hit the vicinity into residential areas of Kharkiv, the second biggest city, as its invasion sputters.

So they're just trying to loosen up the target, trying to kill as many people as possible so they can roll in unencumbered.

So what we have done, and what I give the Germans tremendous credit, it took a long time, and I think it's 100,000 people who protested in Berlin has a lot to do with it. They are now reigniting their nuclear energy program. Number one, number two, they're taking $400 million worth of lethal aid and sending it to the Ukrainians. They're very close. It could get there quickly, theoretically.

And they're allowing other lethal aid to come through their property, through their country proper.

Now, when asked about oil production and how we could make up. for the rise in prices, which is certainly going to happen because of the sanctions on the Russians. By the way, our market's down almost 500 points. Here's what Jen Saki said, especially as it and the first the question was, what about the big calls that Tom Cotton and others have said to actually get put online The pipeline. Let's listen, Cut 26.

I would say that the Congressman's recommendations there, the Keystone Pipeline, was not processing oil through the system. That does not solve any problems. That's a misdiagnosis or maybe a misdiagnosis of what needs to happen. I would also note that on oil leases, what this actually justifies in President Biden's view is the fact that we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, on oil in general, and we need to look at other ways of having energy in our country and others. One of the interesting things, George, we've seen over the last week or so is that a number of European countries are recognizing they need to reduce their own reliance on Russian oil.

So I'm not sure we agree with that assessment of what needs to happen, but energy sanctions remain on the table.

So she thinks we've just got to find get solar panels and get some wind farms. She does not understand that the world is not ready to transition from fossil fuels, even in a time of war when people are dying.

Now I would say Democrat ability To deny reality is simply draw-dropping. And of course, that's what you're seeing.

So, no, they'll never admit they were wrong. The legacy media, uh social media big tech giants, they installed Biden. They'll never admit they were wrong either.

So we do have a little bit of a communication problem here, but hopefully more Americans' eyes are being awakened to the fact that we're a fossil fuel-based economy. Self-inflicted wounds Uh don't work very well. Uh so No, th th this is it's obvious what we need to do. We need to drill more oil here. We need to become energy independent again.

We were until this administration got into office and made us. MG dependent once again, that's not working out very well. And Senator, I know you are running for another term, and it is going to be a hard race, but one thing you are doing while you are having this term, combining with Senator Mike Braun and Senator Mike Lee to induce legislation to protect doctors, patients and prescribers with the Right to Treat Act, what problem is this addressing?

Well, first of all, Brian, appreciate you bringing it up. It shouldn't be necessary. Uh doctors have full off-label prescription rights. No government agency, no no law, no regulation should prevent them from treating a fully FDA approved. Or using a full FDA-approved drug, and right now that's basically what's happening.

Also, doctors. should be at the top of the treatment chain. No government agency should be dictating or regulating how doctors practice medicine. But that's what we've seen during the pandemic to disastrous results. Hundreds of thousands of people, I believe, lost their lives because doctors weren't able to use literally a cornucopia Of drugs available to treat COVID early.

So NIH just said basically if you get. If you test positive for COVID, go home, wait, be afraid until your lips turn blue, and then we're not going to do that much for you in the hospital either.

So, this has been a travesty. This is kind of tacked on to my right to try bill, which allows people the freedom to use non- FDA, fully FDA approved drugs. This just lets them use fully FDA approved drugs, which they've really been denied that use, but. If you mention my campaign, let me mention my campaign website, Ron Johnsonforsenate.com. Brian, they've already outspent me.

13 million to two million. They want the Senate seat If you want Government accountability. If you want to see us save this U.S. Senate seat in Wisconsin, I'm going to need a lot of help.

So, RonJohnson for Senate.com. Uh right now, uh the the Republicans overall have a five point advantage over Democrats in an ABC poll about where they would what party they want to lead the country. Do you think that's going to help you when it comes to winning in Wisconsin again for the third time?

Well, I think Americans are waking up to what a disaster Democrat governance and democrat policies are. But you take nothing for granted. I mean, politics can turn on a dime. Uh, so no, I'm gonna work my tail off. Uh, I'm just gonna try and communicate to the folks here in Wisconsin.

Uh, Really, this is a fight for freedom. Uh our country is really at a hinge point here. And democratic governance is taking us down the road to socialism, green energy, as we were talking earlier. That's not working out too well. That's making us vulnerable.

That's increasing energy prices, gasoline prices, which are up over forty percent. as are used car prices. I mean, these things don't just happen, Brian. All of these Results. are because of Democrat policies.

This is look at our open border. one point quarter million people entered illegally and were dispersed in some way, shape or form all over America. We don't know where they are. That's a number larger than eight The population of eight states.

So democratic governance is a disaster, and that's really what this campaign is going to be about. But we've got the formula for success. We proved it during the last administration. You have a reasonable level of regulation, a competitive tax system, then let government get out of the way And let Americans do what Americans do best: dream, aspire, build, and create. Yeah, uh, the Republican Party practically beg you to run.

They better back you. Uh, and if they don't win your seat, if they lose your seat, uh, they're not gonna cut, they're not gonna win the Senate. Uh, Senator Ron Johnson, always working hard. Thanks so much. Stay well.

Take care. You got it. He also is on the Foreign Relations Committee, the Budget Committee, and Homeland Security. This is the Brian Kill Me Show, and we come back your first time to talk. 1-866-408-7669.

Don't move. Newsmakers and newsbreakers. Here at first on the Brian Kill Me 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. The more you listen, the more you'll know it's Brian Killmead. But I can tell you, there are people now, you know, just discussing that talk about for the first time ever since Putin's been in power for 22 years that maybe we need, you know, hopefully there'll be a coup. Hopefully, they'll stop him before it's too late.

I'm not predicting that. I wanna be crystal clear about that. I think that's a very low probability event. But the fact that it's being discussed, that is something new. He's lost this country, including the people that are closest to him.

Yeah, I laugh when they say Vladimir Putin's got 69% approval rating. Oh, yeah, I'll write disapproval. I'll end up in jail for 20 years. Oh, it's an anonymous poll. I'm sure I can trust the government on that.

And that, by the way, we understand CNN reporting. There's an emergency economics meeting that Vladimir Putin's having because we know his interest rates went from 9% to 20%, and the ruble has dropped down 30% in value. This is going to be the worst is yet to come for him economically as he's trying to pound his way through Kyiv and Kharkiv. And other cities. He does have three small cities currently in the Ukraine.

Nora is watching on Fox Nation. Thank you for that, Nora. What's on your mind? I was just wondering if we're starting to see unrest in like Georgia and Belarus. And I know we're starting to see demonstrations in Moscow, but I'm I'm just wondering if, you know, if he's going to have to fight on other fronts that he didn't expect.

And Brian, I love your show. I watch it all the time.

Well, I can't thank you enough. And also, on Fox Nation, being that you have the app. Today, for the first time, you can get who is Vladimir Putin.

So many people say, who is this guy? Where did he come from? You know, where was the audience? There's so much mystery with Russia anyway.

So. Did a whole thing on who he is. It's about 45 minutes. I think everyone needs a competency on how this guy has really changed. I mean, you could be evil, but you could also be cunning.

And he's lost that cunningness and he's totally detached in this operation. He's going to have to kill his way out of it. And his country's paying an awful price. He united NATO. He has Sweden and Finland ready to apply for NATO membership for the first time ever.

And the Ukrainian people speaking out, saying, I want to be part of the EU and NATO. It's exactly what he didn't want. And he does not have a huge economy to build off of. He's got a relationship with China, but they are rooted in being enemies. Not allies.

So we'll see how long this lasts and we'll see how long it goes. Nora, thanks so much for the call. A lot of people are also writing me on BrianKillme.com. I'll get to some of them.

So we'll give you the latest. We know the second city is being pounded, Kharkiv, the second biggest city. We know there's a convoy of armaments heading into Kiev or Kyiv as the Ukrainians know it, Kiev as the Russians know it as, are coming in to really pound that country, that city. We know this: that Vitaliko has backed off his earlier statement saying he's the mayor of that city, former multiple-year heavyweight champion of the world. He's saying we're not encircled, which means that means you can get.

Food and supplies in and out, which is going to be key if this lasts for weeks on end, because you're going to torture a bunch of people and you got babies that are going to need food, and kids not going to school and running for their lives, you have some long-term effects. They are in talks now. We are saying that right now, we know the Ukrainians went into those talks saying we want a total ceasefire and we want you out of the country. I don't see Russia agreeing to either one of those things.

Well, well say you listen to the Brian Kill Me show, so glad you're here. 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 Killmeade. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. It's the Brian Killmeat Show.

This hour we're going to be joined by Michael Goodwin of the New York Postbox news contributor. Just spoke to Donald Trump. Bottom of the hour, Jonathan Ward. He knows enough about China to probably any 10 universities. He's the author of China's Vision of Victory, the founder of the Atlas Organization, a consultancy focused on the rise of China and India.

India's acting pretty oddly so far in this big conflict. Uh we'll discuss that. With him at the bottom of the L. But first, let's get. And by the way, special thanks.

Of course, we welcome everyone in New York and also to our family of affiliates, another one from Akron, Ohio, very special one. WHLO is now aboard. The slogan is Akron's News Talk. And we want to be all over Ohio and we're privileged to be in Akron. Thanks so much, guys, for signing up with us.

I hope you enjoy the ride.

So from New York and heard around the country, heard around the world. Let's go to the big three.

Now, with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. Over the last couple years, Putin has been more and more isolated. I don't think he's a rational actor because he's fearful. He's out at his compound, doesn't come into town very much.

He's increasingly unhinged. He seems erratic. He's descending into something that I personally haven't seen before. Biggest mystery: is Putin crazy like a fox or just flat out crazy like he's never been before? The Western leaders who know him best and feel he has lost it, they say.

A different man. What are his options for now in on in, and who exactly? is left that he can call a friend, friendly nation or friendly person. Number two. The fact that the sanctions have all of these loopholes is a big problem.

What are we doing on the Russian Central Bank? What are we going to supply to the Ukrainians in order to support them? None of those questions have been answered. Danielle Pletka not buying that this whole SWIFT system and the sanctions have been implemented the way they're saying. The world responds, though, in a massive way.

That's clear. But is it enough? Russia is already feeling the financial pain. That is true. They're in an emergency meeting right now with the economic counselors in Russia.

More importantly, The people of Russia are realizing the pain and feeling the pain as their ruble is turning to rubble. Number of Satellite images, they show a convoy that's more than three miles long of Russian trucks and artillery units headed toward the Ukrainian capital. This is significant because the concern amid the backdrop of possible negotiations succeeding is that the Russians would increase the amount they are shelling cities across this country. The latest from the battlefield, Russia versus Ukraine, three small cities have fallen into Russian hands. And there is some worry that the number two city under onslaught right now could fall as well.

Twice they tried to take it over the last two nights. They failed. They're trying to do it in daylight now. With me right now is Michael Goodwin. Michael, I get the sense that Vladimir Putin is clueless that the Ukrainian people wanted nothing to do with him and his culture and his country.

And he's getting that reality check right now, but it's far from over. Good morning, Brian. Yeah, it does seem to be hanging in the back. Balance still, which is something of a surprise, of course. I think everyone thought that.

Ukraine was his for the taking, and I but I guess we all forgot that the Ukrainian people were not on board with coming under the Soviet yoke again.

So it is a remarkable phenomenon to watch and also to watch the world reacting. I mean it's it's almost like a sporting event where people are picking a side and rooting for that side and the world is rooting for Ukraine. I mean you you you just see it everywhere, you know whether it's these demonstrations. There was a thing in one of the rugby games or soccer games over the weekend where a Ukrainian player came on the field and the entire stadium erupted in cheers.

So you have a real sense of the heart of the world is with Ukraine, but in the end, this is a war and so bullets and that will determine the outcome. And certainly, Russia has a far superior military. They may not be well trained. They may not be well have a good plan, but they still have the brute force. Which is the way they have always operated.

But if you don't mind committing war crime after war crime, if you don't mind leveling a city, Berlin style, 1948, you could do it. But I don't know if the world will tolerate it. I am struck and heartened by 100,000 people in Berlin, by the tens of thousands that are fighting the streets of Paris at this time, by the 40 demonstrations against Russia in our country and the. 6,000 that have been arrested in St. Petersburg and around Russia for protesting their own country's unprovoked war actions.

I mean, this is great courage, not through social media, through logic and understanding. This can't stand. I'm heartened by this, and there's been very little good news in the world of late. Brian, I completely agree with you. And I would add this: that all of that outpouring of support.

From ordinary people around the world, I think is what forced the hands of the governments in Europe and even Biden to get off their butts and do something to help Ukraine.

So you had this Not only the economic sanctions on the banks and all that, which are still being worked out, we'll see what they are, the Russian Central Bank, BP pulling out of Ro Rosneft, but also the military equipment for Germany to send military equipment and to say that it would up its own spending on its own defense. I mean, this is NATO finally waking up. This is what Donald Trump demanded of NATO three years ago and was accused of trying to break NATO up. NATO, as he told me last week, is a paper tiger. But finally, we're seeing some signs of life.

And then what is also shocking is how far behind Joe Biden is. It looks like he went to sleep over the weekend and he was woken by what was happening in Europe. To support Ukraine. The United States was not leading. It was a follower.

Joe Biden learned too well the Barack Obama idea of leading from behind. America is not leading. It is behind. And that is shameful. We don't have to put American troops in harm's way.

But we could have done a lot more. We could have done it a lot sooner. And it would have, I think, made a difference. I mean, if Putin knew the world was going to react this way, would he have invaded anyway? I mean, I think he anticipated that the world would stay asleep, that Europe would moan and complain but do nothing and same for the people.

To back you up, Michael, think about Afghanistan. It falls for sure in August to September. In October, he starts putting tens of thousands of troops onto the border. And he says, This is the way they act? This is America humiliated?

We might as well take advantage and think about it. Break it down. He takes the two Georgia provinces in 2008. There were some sanctions. He lived with it.

And then in 2014, he takes those two disputed regions. They're not disputed. He decided, say, they're Russian-speaking, the Donbass regions. And he takes Crimea. He says Khrushchev never should have given it away.

It belongs to us. Nothing happened. And then he puts these troops on the border. Nothing happened. In Afghanistan, we leave.

We leave all those weapons on the ground. He'd think, well, there's no way, since NATO was never even informed we were leaving, they were going to come together and stop them because Ukraine wasn't even a member of NATO.

So they go ahead and take it. And now, all of a sudden, he's shocked to see this stand being made.

So, now this is the first time he's getting resistance, and it turns out his army sucks. Mike Rogers, the former House Intelligence Committee Chairman, said this about what he's seeing so far, Cut 8. I would not get too excited about what you see as some early Ukrainian victories. Once the Russians catch up with their logistics lines, this is going to get a little bit uglier. And remember, the Russians are right off their border, so their logistics, their ability to push armament forward, their absolute dominance in artillery and missiles presents a huge challenge to Ukraine, and so we shouldn't deny that.

But he went on to say this: Cut 9. Here's the good news. I mean, Putin has managed in a week to do something that happened, hasn't happened in a generation. Germany is remilitarizing. Sweden is now sending weapons to Ukraine.

Finland is now saying we're going to get involved and stop Russian air flights. I mean, that is not something that we've ever seen happen, and it's happened in a week.

So, I mean, all that stuff is so encouraging. If we had begged them to do it, we would have forced them to do it. And when 100,000 show up in Berlin, suddenly, get this, the Germans are saying. That we're getting rid of Nord Stream two, that was good. And then they say we're going to allow offensive weapons to pass through our territory.

That's good. Then they say they're going to supply them. That's great.

Now they say they're going to revisit nuclear energy. I mean, they they look at that as clean energy. This is unbelievable, right? It is. And it just shows.

Yeah. They all were. I mean, these are obviously the right way to approach a bully. But instead, they they slept and sort of wished it away until it was thrust in their faces, and they knew that. Look, had Putin stopped At these two provinces n next to Russia and said, that's all I want.

But when he went for the whole country and then and then talked about Poland and the Balkans in ways that suggested he s he really does want to recapture the entire Soviet Union, uh then I think that's what woke them up. But imagine again, Brian, if they had been on the balls of their feet in the beginning, if they had seen that that Putin was was Acting the bully because he thought they were afraid and would do nothing. What if they had dissuaded him? from that thinking in the beginning by showing they were going to get in and help protect Ukraine. I mean, I have to say, the head of the EU as opposed to NATO, but the head of the EU said something very bold on the weekend.

She said, you know, Ukraine is one of us. Meaning, Ukraine is part of Europe as far as we're concerned. I mean, if that thinking had prevailed earlier, if Joe Biden, I mean, that awful press conference where he said, you know, if it's a minor invasion and all of those things were invitations to Putin, and he accepted the invitation. It's like, come and get it. And he thought he could come and get it.

So thank God these countries are waking up to the reality that you give a bully an inch and he'll won a foot. And that's what has happened here. And I think finally they've recognized Putin for what he is. And we just have a chance to stop him and maybe depose him. And that'll be one major problem the world doesn't need.

Russia will always be an issue. I get it. But we don't have to deal with this. This guy is totally out of control. But I want you to hear Vitaly and Vladimir Klitschko.

I've dealt with both of them when I was doing all sports. And you're a sports background, too.

So I contacted a promoter over the weekend and he said, Says they're afraid of giving up the location. They're afraid of doing anything on satellite. But they pointed to a German interview they did on Saturday on tape that was sent out through their news service. Listen to what they said: why these two heavyweight champions who can live in luxury anywhere in the world went back, one to become mayor and the other went back to join his countrymen. Listen to what the mindset of Ukrainians is.

Cut 15. It's not about home. It's about these values that you have chosen. And someone wants to show us how we should live. We've made our choice.

This is our country, our choice, our freedom. Freedom for our children, for the future, too. I think there's a lot more at play than just the city. I've come. I was in Europe recently and I came back because I was called my brother.

Now take care of me, our mother, my circle of friends, and especially in this crisis. I can't miss anything. I really need to be there. It's really about values and above all, voting. Ukraine, fight for this free choice and decision and stand for the fact that it is not about what we want it to be, it's about values.

We want Ukraine to be a modern European state because we want to be part of Europe, because we are Europeans with our mentality geographically, that with our history we are Europeans, and Putin isn't. He wants to have Ukraine back to his empire and us because of that. We fight for our values. And they know there's targets on their back, and they're 6'7. You know, these guys are huge.

It's going to be very hard to hide. And they're not looking to hide, but they're looking to survive. Zelensky, too.

So this is going to be a very tough week or two. And if they can do that, these guys are going to live. They're going to be living through a. Like fame like they've never experienced before. You know, Brian, I think there's a lesson here for a lot of Americans, too, who have sort of mocked democracy, mocked sort of the founding of America and what it means.

And here you see living, breathing people, not just migrants coming from Central America to escape violence, but you see people willing to fight. for their freedom. I mean, it it should be a lesson to Americans too, because I think we've all gotten lazy and hazy about our founding, about what America means to the world. Right now, America is, as I said, leading from behind, which is to say not leading at all. But it is time for a rebirth in America of our values, our historic values, because it is that sense of freedom that the Ukrainians are embracing and risking their lives for.

And as you say, these famous celebrities, they're coming home to fight for that. I mean, that is a remarkable tale of sort of the human heart. And for all Americans, I think it should remind us of what our country is supposed to be about. I think you have your next column. I would not be surprised if I seen that in the New York Post this week.

I love it. Michael Goodwin, thanks so much. My pleasure, Brian. Thank you. You got it, 1866-408-7669.

Your time to talk. You listen to the Brian Kilmead Show.

So glad you're here. Diving deep into today's top stories. It's Brian Kilmead. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead.

And I will not be a diplomatic.

Some countries are trying to leave loopholes, exclude a number of banks so that they can apply some measures with their left hands. and continue to trade with Russia with their right hands. Stop doing this now. Stop trading with the blood of Ukrainian men, women and children. This is not a metaphor.

But the reality of what you are doing. History will judge you, and your names will forever remain in history books. as names of traitors of humanity. who failed to oppose the aggressor in Europe, At a crucial time. And what that's talking about is the advice.

The Ukrainian foreign minister is saying, Hey, I know you want to get off the SWIFT system. You want to kick Russia off the Swift system. That's great.

He goes, But don't exempt these key banks, like, for example, energy banks, because if you do that, you're allowing Russia to continue to be able to finance and stand themselves up economically. I love what they're doing. They are forcing the rest of the world to say, See, you left us alone. At least put together decent sanctions. And what Zelensky has done.

Is what Joe Biden couldn't do. It's unite the world to say, Look, you know we're fighting, you know who the enemy is, you know exactly we did nothing wrong, so try to help me. You don't want to send people, I don't even want your people. We just want the weapons necessary to do it. We're not asking for EU admission, we're not asking for NATO admission.

What we're doing is asking for you to stop doing business with them. And because they gotta off the SWIFT system and they stopped airline flights, and they said they're starting to. Make it harder for them to get parts for their cars. Listen to this: the ruble has sank major in 30%. They've already taken out $7 billion from the banks, have the Russian people.

That was going into Monday.

So, interest rates, as I mentioned, went from 9% to 20%. The value of the ruble is down 30%. Card parts are harder to find. Travel is going to be exceedingly difficult as they stop flights. They took out two World Cup matches.

The Formula One race that was supposed to take place is not taking place. BP is bowing out of their relationship with the second biggest gas and oil producer in the country. Businesses are asking more and more for their cash, for their money in cash. Whether you're trying to buy a cup of coffee or you're trying to buy a car, they're not looking to even use the ruble. That's the damage that Vladimir Putin has cast.

But that's how the world has to unite. I really salute that Prime Minister saying, yeah, don't give me fighters, but don't help my enemy.

Well said. Jonathan Ward next. What does China think about all this? Why is India sitting on the side? He knows both countries well.

Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. This invasion was greenlighted by Beijing. Russia has 11 time zones, and they were able to move their troops from the Far East back to Belarus to be able to invade not just from their Russian actual territory in the east and the Crimean Seas territory in the southeast, but they invaded from Belarus as well, and they're encircling Kiev as we speak. That was able to happen because they moved the troops back because she said, Hey, I'd love it if you could help destabilize Europe and the US.

And by the way, I'd love you to be the scout team offense on what a cyber hybrid war looks like, so we China know what it might look like if we try to seize Taiwan. That's a huge stretch so far, but is it? That's Senator Ben Sasse. Jonathan Ward, author of China's Vision of Victory and founder of the Atlas organization, joins us now. Jonathan, what do you think of Senator Sasse's estimation or hypothesis?

Hi, Brian. It's great to be back with you.

Well, look, I mean, Beijing is a major piece of why this is happening. I mean, Putin would not be able to get this done without the backing of a superpower. He needed an economic patron in order to do this, knowing that they're going to be Russia is going to be cut off from the West in many ways. And that we're essentially going to be in the state of economic warfare with the Russian Federation.

So the meeting at the Olympics was important, but the Russia-China relationship has been building up across all fronts for years now.

So I think this is absolutely accurate to see this as part of a Russia-China joint play to take down the American world. And that's what I've been saying for a long time. I mean, we really have this problem where you have multiple adversaries that are trying to take apart the world order that the U.S. built, and they're doing it together. We have a Russia-China problem.

It doesn't make a lot of sense to separate the variables when they're working this closely. That's true, but inherently they've always been clashing, right? I mean, they don't have a great history of being great friends.

Well, it depends on how far back you wind the history. And I think too many people use the Sino-Soviet split as a reference point. I mean, they were closely aligned in the Korean War. You go back a couple hundred years earlier, and you had a variety of treaties in the Ammon River Valley that allowed Russia and China to, you know, Russia could expand east while China expanded west in that case.

So they have a much longer history than just the 20th century that we're used to. And they've been cooperative in the past as empires as much as anything.

So most people don't have that reference point, but their ability to get things done once they've solved their border, which is what they absolutely have done here in the sense of they're going to go along to get along and both press against the United States.

So we're dealing with something that we should not underestimate. True. But let's look at how it's going so far. We see that China abstained from condemning Russia rather than just bailed out of it like Russia did, right?

So they abstained from that. Number two is they're calling for talks.

So they're not coming out vociferously defending Russia's actions. Correct? And they have more trade with Ukraine than Russia does. Right, but those aren't the major factors. I mean, the important thing here is to have a military superpower like Russia as a de facto partner and one that can harass the U.S.

on one end of Eurasia while China has claims on the other.

So don't be deceived by Chinese diplomacy. I mean, of course, they're going to lie on the world stage to the United States and other nations. And their ability to not call this an invasion and just sort of play both sides on the diplomatic stage should not deceive anyone. um when it comes to their their provision of of economic support for for this situation. But what it's done in the short term Is United NATO in a way I haven't really seen in my lifetime?

I mean, you have Germany. I don't, we're not necessarily in the lead on this. Germany, you see how they've changed. They're starting to move now. They got rid of Nordstrom 2 for now, not certifying it, not getting rid of Nordstrom 1 yet, but they're starting to move on nuclear energy.

They pledged to give 2% of their defense. You saw 100,000 people lining the streets of Berlin. And now you have France who took the lead on this and sees Russia as an enemy. There's almost no nation in the world outside Brazil, India, and China that doesn't see. Russia as a belligerent power.

Well, that's right. And this is all important. I mean, the West's handling of this has some serious positive points to it. I mean, we're supplying the right military equipment. The Ukrainians, as of our speaking right now, are doing well in the field, it appears.

A lot of Russian armor is being destroyed by javelins and MLAs, and stingers are playing a role. I mean, this is all sort of being handled in the right way thus far, creating a serious problem for Putin.

So that's another important piece of this. I mean, it's not that this is going well, obviously. And Beijing gets to watch that. They get to see what their major unlimited partner looks like under massive sanctions and in a war that is not going well.

So those are important signals to China. as much as anything. And Russia becoming a global pariah is on one hand, yes. I mean, the unification of NATO around this issue is very important. But also think about it this way.

Where else does Russia have to turn at this point? I mean, their only m serious friend is China, and that means that our Russia China problem is going to be compounded.

So we are I think in quite a dangerous situation both in this crisis and coming out of it when it comes to having a lot of people. I want you to hear what Neil Ferguson's thoughts are on this. He's from the Hoover Institute, Cut Five. It really has been a debacle. I'm reminded of the worst year of the Carter presidency in 1979, when the Iranian Revolution was followed by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

But I actually think this could turn out to be worse because I think the consequences of this failure, and it could be catastrophic for Ukraine, but they'll extend far beyond Ukraine. The Chinese are watching this and they're thinking to themselves, well, if this can be achieved in Ukraine, then we may well be able to do something similar in Taiwan in just a couple of years.

So, this is a very dire situation. I agree with your analysis. And do you agree with his?

Well, I think this the Taiwan implications here are very profound. And again, if this is why it's so important that there be a substantial resistance to the Russian invasion both on the ground in Ukraine and also by way of international sanctions. I mean, it's important that Beijing understands that this this could be a disaster for them if they try to do the same thing.

So deterrence in one theater is deterrence in another. And even if Russia is is proceeding with this invasion, there's still wide berth to make it a very, very costly ordeal for them, and that won't be lost on Beijing. On the other hand, if it goes well for them ultimately, if they do escalate, if they do start to turn the tide, China is going to notice that part too.

So let's talk about India. I mean, why is India standing on the side? I know they have a defense agreement with. Russia. But I mean, they're the largest democracy in the world.

How could they not see, even would Turkey seize?

So let me take you back to the 1962 China-India border crisis and border war. At that point, Nehru's biggest problem as Prime Minister, he did not want to side with the West even though we were willing to supply him with all the right material because he didn't want the Sino-Soviet split to come back together. He understood that better than we did at the time that Moscow and Beijing were forming a rift. Um and and to him, if he swung to the west then you'd have a Russia-backed China once again. the Sino-Soviet split was underway at that time.

So it's the same issue for them now. I mean, they're right on the border with China. China has territorial claims. China's already used force against India just in 2020, and there there's a long history of that.

So to them, you know, non-alignment, which is their diplomatic history, basically means having relations with both Russia and the United States. Um so they're trying to to balance that. All their a whole lot of their military equipment. I mean, they're trying to replace it as much as they can with American equipment, but all the parts, you know, it's it's Russian weaponry and that's where their parts and and equipment comes from.

So You know, they are um trying to walk that tightrope once again, it I don't know that, that's sustainable. I don't think it's wise. I think it would be right for India to now firmly come into the Western camp. Um but to them they have a massive border with China, and if the Russia-China relationship deepens, which it will, after this crisis, they're gonna they're gonna be in big trouble.

So that that explains their Point of view, but you know, India's in a dangerous spot. It was briefed to me last night that if if this humiliation continues by Russia, where they put one hundred ninety thousand troops, which is almost three quarters of their fighting force, on the border and they're able to not have success and they have to ask the Belarusians to come in and fight for them with them. And if this doesn't yield success, That China's not going to worry, and they see the outrage of the West and the sanctions that are hurting their banking system, destroying their rule bill, their credit rating, stopping flights, commercial traffic, the divestment from that country. That China doesn't fear for that because the rest of the world is so invested in China already. Case in point, look at the NBA.

They don't condemn anything with the Uyghurs. We're seeing these concentration camps, and basically no one's even talking about it. They still have the Olympics. Is the rest of the world, the capitalistic culture, so ingrained that we'd give up all of our values if they did something similar to what the Russians are doing to Ukraine, that do the same thing to Taiwan? Would we just look the other way?

And I'm not just talking about America, but most of the West. Brian, well that's why it's so important for people to understand the nature of this problem, that it's both Russia and China, that it's Chinese support for Russia and Russian support for Beijing. That's why this comprehensive strategic partnership, as they call it. It's just so important that we get the picture on that because if you're going to look the other way on Hong Kong and not look the other way on Ukraine, I mean, you've got to be able to see the whole thing for what it is. These are partners, they are working together, they are supporting one another in their strategic ambitions, and we've got to call it for what it is.

We have a Russia-China problem for the first time since the early Cold War. They support each other, and it doesn't make sense for us to look the other way on China and its genocide and atrocities and its military buildup that's absolutely about war in the Pacific. The longer that we are ignorant about that, the worse off we're going to be. We've just seen a lot of norms be torched overnight when it comes to invasion of other states. And the world is is you know.

It's time for us to understand how dangerous that really is. It's not just limited to Europe, Asia, and the Pacific, too. Jonathan, if they were to call in Jonathan Ward. And they say that the State Department and Defense Department, as well as the White House, and say, what do you suggest we do about this? Elliot Abrams was on with me on Saturday night.

And you know, we worked through three Republican administrations dating back to Reagan. And he said, we have to go back to spending 7% of our GDP on defense because it's going to be even more challenging now because we have these two Cold War enemies. And we have to understand that, that we got to stop trying to reset a relationship when the other side has no interest in resetting it. Do you believe, what would you recommend for a State Department, a Defense Department, and a White House that was going to listen to you?

Well, we need a new US grand strategy to handle both of these adversaries. We need to do economic containment of China. That means getting our companies to pull them back, pull our investment out, stop throwing technology and capital into the People's Republic of China. And at the same time, yes, I think you've got to increase U.S. defense spending and get the alliance system to be global.

I mean, the allies in Asia and the allies in Europe need to start working together on both sides of this problem, that's Russia and China, and also make it very, very costly for the Russians in the field. and prepare for the defense of the Pacific as well. Yeah, I mean, trying to talk them down is not going to work. And trying to tap into people's patriotism to start making things here or in Central and South America would certainly help. But just people don't see it now.

Maybe they're getting a wake-up call. I know Europe seems to. Jonathan Ward, author of China's Vision of Victory, thanks so much. Thank you, Brian. All eyes are on Europe.

1866-408-7669. From Wisconsin to New York to Washington to California. We'll be getting to all your calls when we return on the Brian Kilmeat Show. Don't move. Expanding your knowledge base.

It's the Brian Kilmeat Show. Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Meat Show. Russia has four levels of readiness for their nuclear forces. This is the second level of four.

It's an elevated level. And what I think Vladimir Putin is doing, what I think he's trying to do is message the West, message the U.S.-led NATO alliance. He's trying to extort us. He's very much aware that the United States and our NATO allies, but not only our NATO allies, others, including Sweden, for example, are providing much-needed military assistance to Ukraine, that we have the capacity to provide actionable intelligence to Ukrainian forces to aid them in their fight against the Russian aggression. And I think he's trying to extort us and induce us to dial that down a bit out of concern over Russia's nuclear arsenal.

My hope is that they don't cut a deal now and they'll just hold on to more of Ukraine, even though he wants the whole country. Maybe his way out is: I'll just take the portions of which I have, which you should not be able to hold. He shouldn't be holding Crimea, you can go debate. But the other, the Donbass region, he should not. 14,000 have died to push him back, and no deal has been cut.

Now he's lost three other cities. Ukraine's lost three other cities, but they're still hanging tough. Let's go out to Tony Listen, WABC, and Elizabeth. Uh, New Jersey. Hey, Tony.

Hey, how are you? Good. I just need your help to help me break something down, knowing that President Biden is actually leading from behind. He's weak Completely, you can see like the other tyrants around the world, like especially in a situation when Cuba was doing their uprising for freedom and liberty. silence from the White House completely.

I mean uh I mean completely dissed that country that's been under for over, what, sixty-three, sixty-four years, I think. Ben, you know, what is this not to inspire North Korea to do something to South Korea or even do something, you know.

something that catches everybody by surprise towards Japan or China towards Taiwan. These actions that Russia is taking towards Ukraine Having the president lead from behind, and as your other guest was saying, I mean, we're living in some crazy times, and Putin right now is. I believe he's unpredictable knowing that he's using these threats And nuclear threats.

Well, Tony, a couple of things. Everything you said, I believe with my previous guest that said, why are we like Ron Johnson, why are we letting Europe take the lead? But here's one thing I do like about this. Because we refused to take the lead, because we didn't want to look like there was going to be a U.S.-Russia clash, it has forced Russia, Europe, to say, wait a second. Our own people want us to show some aggression to defend.

The Ukrainians to maybe put more money in defense so we're not the next victims. That's what we've been trying to do. And Trump was the first to be effectively get people like Poland and others to do it.

Now Germany has pledged to do it, France has pledged to do it.

Now we see Estonia and Latvia, all the Eastern European nations are putting together arms. And guess what? Turkey, the heretic of the NATO armed forces, is combining with Ukraine to limit the number of ships going through the Black Sea. When we get the right leader in there, and Joe Biden is not the right leader, and I even think Democrats know it, at least we'll have a more compliant, understanding NATO who understands that that alliance was put together predominantly. For them.

So I think in the long run, them stepping up Will help the next leader come in and have more cooperation. and allow Sweden and Finland to understand they better join. And that's what I'm for. And to understand, too, that Russia is not the ferocious lion and that they are not they have not modernized their forces to the way they've been advertised. Thanks, Tony.

Alex, listening online in Mountain View, California. Alex. Hi, thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to add some additional information about India. The United States at the recent United Nations Security Council meeting made a proposal to condemn Russia.

and to demand that Russia leave Ukraine.

Well, India joined China and abstained and refused to support the proposal. That tells me that India is not a Western country. They don't share our values. And I think that we should be careful in our military relations with that country. They may double cross us.

So let's deal with them and work on things that might have common interests, but don't make them a close ally. Yeah, yeah, and by doing I think they'll end up coming around, Alex, when they realize Russia is a prior state. And Belarus, I hope, understands if they continue to pledge to put troops into this fight, they're going to be facing the same sanctions that Russia is. Only they're not going to be able to absorb anything. Vladimir Putin put aside $600 billion just for this.

It's not going to be enough. But they were ready for this to the best they could. Belarus has got no net. Just a terrible autocratic leader. 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 Kilmead. Hi, everyone. I'm Brian Kilmead, live from New York, coming to you around the country and hopefully heard around the world because the whole world is focused on the Ukraine. I'm going to discuss now with Eric Prince in a matter of moments when it comes to tactics. It looks like we might be heading to the scorched earth phase of Russian operations because they screwed up the first four days so precipitously.

And then Brett Baer, chief political anchor for Fox News, will be joining us at the bottom of the hour. Special thanks. We've got a new station aboard. Privileged to have with us in Yuma, Arizona, KBLU 560 AM, News Talk 560, where Yuma comes to talk. I love it.

Let's get to the big three.

Now with the stories you need to know, it's Brian's big three. Number three. Over the last couple years, Putin has been more and more isolated. I don't think he's a rational actor because he's fearful. He's out at his compound, doesn't come into town very much.

He's increasingly unhinged. He seems erratic. He's descending into something that I personally haven't seen before. That is a quick review of Vladimir Putin. Is he crazy or crazy like a fox?

The Western leaders who know him best thinks he's not the same guy. We'll discuss. Number two. The fact that the sanctions have all of these loopholes is a big problem. What are we doing on the Russian Central Bank?

What are we going to supply to the Ukrainians in order to support them? None of those questions have been answered. Danielle Pletka says, Hey, I love the intent on the sanctions, but I have to see the execution. She mentioned that on Meet the Press. Let's talk about it.

Number one. Satellite images, they show a convoy that's more than three miles long of Russian trucks and artillery units headed toward the Ukrainian capital. This is significant because the concern amid the backdrop of possible negotiations succeeding is that the Russians would increase the amount they are shelling cities across this country. That is so interesting, fascinating, and horrifying. Russia versus Ukraine.

The latest from the battlefield is three small cities fall into Russian hands, and they're trying to take the capital and the second biggest city. Joining us now is Eric Prince. He's going to be joining us shortly. He's a former U.S. Navy SEAL officer, founder of the private military company Blackwater.

He knows all about weaponry, getting it in and out of tough situations. That's why it would be great to have him when we finally get him. He also knows what's effective and what's not. At this hour, we understand the second biggest city, Kharkiv, is being besieged in a ham-handed, haphazard way. That means they're going for residences.

And Kyiv is now witnessing the after-effects of having a convoy of lasting three miles of transportation vehicles, artillery vehicles, as well as airplanes and choppers going in to try to take that capital once and for all. The first plan was to take Kyiv. The second was to take Kyiv, the port city of Odessa, and Kharkiv. And that didn't work. In fact, I talked to military analysts and they said they couldn't believe how ridiculous it was for the Russians to think they're going to go through a country this size with from four different angles and take it quickly.

He says you'd be lucky even with one hundred fifty thousand troops when you have one hundred fifty thousand really only a third are fighting.

So if a third are fighting, how do you expect to take down a country that's hostile to your existence at thirty million?

So here's a little of how's it going. The Ukrainian ambassador speaking yesterday on this week with George Stevanopoulos, here she has cut one. First of all, we have to understand here that neither NATO nor any other false pretext or lies that the Russian Federation government is spreading is the real reason why they attacked us. They attacked us because they always wanted to destroy us, because free, democratic and sovereign Ukraine is a threat to them. We are a peaceful country, we never attack them, but they cannot allow us to be independent and just to live our own lives.

That's why they attacked us in twenty fourteen. That's why for the past eight years they've done everything to pressure us into this, and that's why now they started the war. And you know what? She's just seeing it. And there's so many people, celebrities on down, who just said, Give me a gun, I'm going back.

And they're coming back into the fight from out of country. From Poland and from Romania, where they could be getting receiving exile status and maybe getting some. Accommodation From their allies. Instead, they say, no, no, I'm going back to fight for my country. And that's what Zelensky has said.

He said, wherever you are, if you want to fight for us, come, we'll give you a gun, we'll let him fight.

So they're not demanding anyone help. They just want weaponry and be able to fight for themselves. And I just think that's awesome. The ambassador goes on when she was talking about the peace talks that are taking place right now as we speak. I'm just scouring the wires to see if I have any report from the Belarus-Ukrainian border where these talks are taking place.

I've only seen some video of both arriving at a big long table. Let's listen to more from Ambassador Markova. Our president from the beginning, even before the war started, always was focused on the diplomatic solution. And even after they started the war, he actually called for peace talks all the time. But he always said, we are ready for peace talks.

We are not ready to surrender.

So, of course, we are ready for any peace talks that would stop the war and would get them out from our country. But it's too early to talk now. And the precondition, there weren't preconditions, but the demands of the Ukrainians are get out of the country, stop, cease firing me. and leave the country. I don't think Vladimir Putin's going to do either.

But the other question is, what is Vladimir Putin thinking?

Now I know how it went. I remember in 2008, Shashkovili, who's a Western oriented leader of Georgia, was being belligerent and somewhat provocative with the Russian leader.

So, the Russian leader came in, and no one ever excuses his behavior. I get it, never will. But he took two of these disputed provinces.

Now, I remember Kandoly Seris saying this was avoidable. This is the first time this has happened really since World War II. This is a huge issue.

So, In 2014, he does the same thing with the two provinces in the so-called disputed region, Donbass region, in the Ukraine. And he takes Crimea, saying, Well, we had it up until the 1950s, so we should just get it back. He's allowed to keep it.

Some sanctions. He's able to weather the storm. We kick him out of the G7, kick him out of the G8, make it a G7. He's able to weather the storm. They poison some exiles overseas in the UK.

We sanction him. They're able to weather the storm. Then they threaten the UK. They say you better, they threaten Ukraine, and they said you better not pull away. You better not apply for NATO.

You better not be part of the European Union.

So, what they did in return, they rallied, got rid of their. Pro-Russian leader. And the elected Prushenko. who then lost an election to the man we're looking at now, Zelensky. The actor-comedian.

Great communicator who wins an election overwhelmingly with roughly 68% of the vote. And then when it was time to step up. And the negotiator, Vladimir Putin says, No, I want you out of the country. He goes, No, well, we're going to keep those. Russian separatist regions.

And he says, no, you're not going to do it. And we're going to keep, we'd like you to just hand over, make it official, hand over Crimea. He says, no, I'm not going to do it.

So they want to get rid of him. They want to decapitate the entire government, including the mayor, who happens to be 6'7 and a former heavyweight champion. Vitaly uh klitschko. And they're unable to do it. They don't want to get out of the car up until today, when I have not seen any video yet scouring Twitter.

But their second biggest city, they want to get out of the car. It's too dangerous.

So the question is. And there's many. We have pledged to give aid. $400 million immediate aid.

Now we're asking Congress to give $6 billion. I'm sure we'll give it through weaponry, through aid. Immediately, it's going to go into that region. But now we can't fly it in.

Now we've got to get it covertly in. It's going to be a lot harder. We had all those weeks and months to get ready for it. As the Russians built up, we could have flown in these weaponry, but instead we diverted weaponry that was going to Afghanistan, but we gave it to the Taliban, so we gave it to Ukraine instead. This is not the type of weaponry they actually needed.

So now, as Ukraine is under siege in a major city. We have to be able to get overusing land to get. Supplies to them. If one of our NATO allies Has a transportation vehicle. Full of supplies, a truck, and gets blown up Is that a c adequate Article 5 violation?

Senator Mark Warner, cut for. I still worry about, for example, one of the things we talk about off-air: if Putin launches his full cyber capabilities, shuts down the power in Ukraine, does that somehow shut down the power in eastern Poland as well? Because once you let Malware out, could that shut off power? Did you talk about this idea that Article 5 could be invoked? on a cyber attack.

Cyber attack is, again, one of those areas where we've had so-called strategic ambiguity, but if you suddenly see American troops get hurt because the power's been shut off or Polish citizens die because the hospitals go down, you're very rapidly approaching what I think is an Article V violation. Gotta get clear on that, guys. Gotta get clear on it. Because they pride themselves on a cyber attack. And you just heard Jonathan Moore the previous hour, a China expert, trying to see how we respond to a cyber attack because we know they're capable of doing it.

You're listening to the Brian Kilmeet show.

So glad you're here. We're following all the events overseas. They're not waiting for nighttime to attack. They are once again trying to take the second biggest city. And we're seeing if the Ukrainians can continue to astound and confound Russia and astound us by holding out and winning this fight, or at least holding their own.

You're listening to the Brian Kilmeet Show. Learning something new every day on the Brian Killmead Show. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead. The sanctions are great.

I support them 100%, but they take months and years to have effect. It's really about winning the war on the ground. We need to support Ukrainians who are fighting. And three, if he succeeds in his ultimate objective, which is regime change. And force Zelensky out of power, arrest him, or kill him, we need to continue to support the resistance.

I'm convinced, Chuck, there is no way that Ukrainians will submit to some kind of puppet regime from Russia. That is not going to happen. But to unravel that could take a long time. Former Ambassador. To Russia, Michael McFarling, and I don't know why Vladimir Putin had had that explained to him, but it seems that is the case.

He thought he could maybe convince he there were forty million people. forced to vote for a guy that was elected with sixty eight percent of the vote. In Zelensky. Joining us now is Eric Prince, former U.S. Navy SEAL, founder of the private group Blackwater and Academy.

Right now joins us. Eric, welcome. Good morning, Brian. How are you? Good.

Eric, first off, are you surprised on how slow it is going initially for the Russians? Yes, I think it's certainly been a major fail on their part. It's certainly not what they're expecting. But when they plan to have four axes of advance, that's four lines of logistics that's really spreading the offensive punch probably a bit too widely. And I think they expected a cake walk cakewalk.

And I think they've gotten a certain kind of bad sandwich instead.

Well, number one, it was explained to me, too, by somebody who also has years in the battlefield that you can't leave weaponry. In the middle of winter, on the enemy, you know, on the border for five months, with guys with no accommodation, expect the morale to be high and the stuff to work. Is that a possibility? Certainly a possibility. I think the difference is a wide cross section of people in the Russian Army.

You have you know, conscripts. which are serving for less than two years, very low motivation, low training. A very, very abusive structure, and you have a few. longer term contracted professionals that they depended on, but um uh either force has neither made uh real headway. You know, they did the the air assault into the Antonov airfield on the western side of Kiev.

Thinking they would be able to reinforce and floor more troops in and try to seize the capital. they did not expect the free Ukrainians to rise, even in the Russian speaking areas. I figured Putin was going to go in, but I figured I told my friends he was going to stay east of the Dnieper River But I'm really shocked that they're deciding to take it. What rivers are. Denieper, it's the river that runs right through downtown Kiev.

Okay. Kiev's kind of straddling both sides. I figured he was going to take the Eastern, the Russian speaking side of the country. But, um To try to take the capital. Clearly, a mistake.

And you know, it's also showing that urban warfare. very much evens the playing field and it kind of negates some of the apparent technological advances.

So I'm it's especially frustrating because I offered back in December already a simple plan based on what was done in the past that would have prevented the Russians from invading. When the Brits were up against it fighting the Nazis in nineteen forty, a Franklin Roosevelt authorized Lent Lease, which was providing Older U.S. equipment to allies, and this year the U.S. Air Force is already retiring 200 combat aircraft, including. F fifteen's, F sixteens and A tens.

And if the U. S. had transferred any number of those to the Ukrainians, painted them in Ukrainian markings. And we could have flown them with contract pilots or with with Ukrainian pilots The the air power they would have insured would have prevented the Russians from really crossing the border effectively in any way, shape or form. And what was the answer?

Did you propose that to this administration? Yeah. It was proposed. directly to the Biden NSC. And that with a resounding with a resounding, we're not interested.

Right. And now we're trying to rush weaponry in there. Even Germany is. And now we have to do it over land. Eric Prince, how hard is that, if at all, if you think it's a big deal that we have to go through Poland, Romania or somewhere else?

The sad thing is, if this grinds into a long running insurgency like the Russians fought in Grozny in Chechnya, There's a lot of people going to die, a lot of people going to suffer. and it will get ugly. And when you get to partisan warfare inside of cities, there's going to be a lot of civilian casualties and just an enormous amount of destruction. And it was all preventable. And that's the frustration that the National Command Authority in America lacks.

any kind of imagination Any kind of ability to come up with a different plan or accept a different plan. for all their talk of diversity. they seem to only think within their beltway bubble, and that's extremely dangerous because I mean, heck, I I'm I'm I'm pleasantly surprised That the Germans have come around and are always going to help the Ukrainians. Even the Swiss. Are sanctioning the Russians now.

The Swiss haven't come off the sidelines over the five hundred years. They didn't even sanction Hitler. but yet they're sanctioning the Russians.

So there's it cert certainly is stimulated a real antibody response. from the Europeans. and from the international community. But in the meantime, there's terrain That has to be defended, and I'm sure the Ukrainians are not willing to yield. any one you know any one square kilometer Uh, to the Russians on this one, so wars are decided by who holds that ground.

And um You know, the The Russians We're also limited. You see, most of those destroyed tanks are all running on roads. And there's a term in Russian called the the great Rasputica, which is the great slush. And of course, Ukraine has enormous amounts of farmland, And what is what is farmland? It's mud.

It's frozen now. But as you come towards spring, they're going to be even more confined to the roads, really until July. Right. And so that will make it easier for the Ukrainians to defend those lines of um of attack. because the Russians are not going to be able to get off road and try to transit through the mud.

Real quick, Eric, you know, it's the people of Berlin, of now today, Paris, of St. Petersburg, 40 different cities in America, we have less than a minute, that have stood up and made their leaders act, not the military experts. Isn't that amazing? Yeah, I was surprised in Berlin. They expected twenty thousand people over the weekend to show up and protest and a half a million people did.

So yes, they they have definitely woken up, and I guess that is still the the power of people in a democracy that you can make your voice heard if you yell and loud stamp your feet loud enough. Erica, they didn't listen to Afghanistan, and we faced humiliation. You tried to help them in Ukraine, and now we are sitting on the sidelines scrambling to get involved.

Someday they'll listen. Thank you so much. Maybe someday, Brian, thank you. Yep, I will be listening. When we come back, Brett Baer joins us.

He's listening to the Brian Kill Me Show. A very important day. We're following all the developments overseas. It's not slowing down. In fact, it is heating up.

Don't move. The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead. Over the last couple years, Putin has been more and more isolated. He's not been in the Kremlin for the most part.

I don't think he's a rational actor because he's fearful. He doesn't look very powerful. And this is going to jeopardize his ability to stay in power. That word rational actors are very elastic, right? He's out at his compound, doesn't come into town very much, and under COVID, he's been more isolated.

He's increasingly unhinged in the way that he talks about the regime.

Well, I met with him many times, and this is a different Putin. He seems erratic. There is an ever-deepening delusional rendering of history. He's descending into something that I personally haven't seen before. There's not one political person on that montage of people describing Vladimir Putin.

There was no bovietting, there was no advertising. That's just what their personal opinion is of people that have dealt with him before in the past. And then you factor in Marco Rubio's tweet where he says, I can't tell you everything, but this is not the same Vladimir Putin from five years ago. Brett Baer joins us now. He's been all over the channel.

As you know, chief political anchor. When things like this happen, Brett cannot be allowed to sleep. Brett, welcome back. Thanks. I know.

It's unbelievable the series of events that have taken place. And I just want to get your take on people like Condoleezza Rice saying this is not the same guy. Yeah, and I think that there are a lot of people saying that. You just had the French President Macron. Uh and who had just met with him in person say something similar that he's dark and ominous and brooding and uh stuck on the you know, pre-Soviet Union map For Russia, and I had the UK ambassador to the US on the show this weekend.

Uh she has talked to people very close to Putin. who say roughly the same thing. according to her.

Now what does that mean? I think it means dangerous things. It means that the twenty fourteen playbook for Crimea is not the playbook that we're looking at now. And we could be looking at a lot of attacks that look more like Grozny or Syria, where it's very civilian targeted and could get very, very ugly in the next day or so. Are you getting the sense that right now, Kharkiv is getting ugly because they're shelling it again?

But this time, it seems to be with without any precision, just Uh but without without with uh increased frequency? Yeah. I mean, we've seen videos that have surfaced that are and the other thing to be careful of is there's other things on the Internet that are just people putting out stuff and you don't know where it's from. If it's If it's not a trusted source that you know, just be skeptical of it because people can say all kinds of things and there's a lot of stuff flying. Flying out there.

But the people that you trust that are there who are shooting video, yeah, I mean, it looks like. you know, not carpet bombing, but definite indiscriminate use of uh missiles and and fire and shelling.

So uh Brett, what do you know about the talks? I haven't seen anything come out of those talks yet between that are taking place in the Belarus-Ukrainian border between Ukraine and uh Russian officials.

So apparently they just wrapped up a short time ago and both have gone back to their capitals. with uh to for consultations they said and a promise to do talks again. What that means, I don't know. The Ukrainians want a full withdrawal of military, including from the Donbas, which is the separatist area in the east. And we don't have a readout of what exactly Russia has demanded.

But they say they're going to talk again.

So I guess that that is a silver lining. I saw a report by Jennifer Griffin that Belarus is not making moves and maneuvers and assembling in a way that looks like they're going to get involved. Uh do you believe that they is that what we're going with? Because we woke up today thinking that they weren't there in, which to me would show a de a degree of panic. Yeah.

I think that was coming from Russian sources saying that Belarus had sudden on, but maybe Belarus didn't get that message. I think even if they were involved, they have a fairly small military. It's about twenty thousand that they were able to bring in. Still significant to have a country support Russia because other previous allies have backed out. They've given Putin the Heisman Award and pushed him away.

And I think that This is an indication that maybe Belarus is getting cold feet on that prompt.

So I understand there's three cities that have fallen. Nicolavia, Vica, in that area, and two others. There's smaller cities, one of which is a port city in and around the Donbass region. Any significance to that except for the fact that there really has been no cities taken to this point? Yes, I think that, that's the message from U.

S. and British intelligence is that this is not going how Putin dreamed it up or planned it. This is day five, heading into day six. and no major city is completely under control. That's a big deal.

That's a big credit to Ukrainian defense officials and soldiers on the ground. But it's important to realize that, you know, It's day five, heading to day six. A lot can happen. There's a lot more military might that comes behind that if. Putin puts all in on the table.

So, you know, everyone's encouraged. We just had Eric Prince on. He said he cannot believe Switzerland didn't even sanction Hitler. They are now a part of this, sanctioning the banks and investments in their country. We know that Germany has stepped up in a way I didn't think was imaginable in this day and age, sending lethal weapons, allowing others to send through their country, and then pledging to spend 2% of their budget on defense, as well as pivot to nuclear energy, revisit nuclear energy, which is pretty astounding.

But before getting too ahead, I was struck by the sanctions on this SWIFT banking system. I thought it was noteworthy that Andrea Mitchell said this about the actual sanctions, CUT 20. What they did on SWIFT, there's still big holes at Swiss cheese, really, on SWIFT, because first they have to wait for the Belgian leaders, the board of directors, to approve it next week. They've got a big cutout for any banks that are involved in energy transactions.

So that's to protect Germany and Italy and others. And which banks? To those. They could be some of the worst oligarch-controlled banks.

So let's wait to see exactly how it's implemented.

And then Danielle Pletka did some research herself. She's a senior fellow at AEI, CUT 21. The fact that the sanctions have all of these loopholes is a big problem. What are we doing on the Russian Central Bank? What are we going to supply to the Ukrainians in order to support them?

How are we going to backfill Poland and others that are depleting their own defensive stocks in order to support the Ukrainians? None of those questions have been answered. So Implementation is going to be key. I think we should all look at that, correct? Yeah, a hundred percent.

I mean If you're going to exclude banks from energy deals, that's most of the banks.

Somebody said this affects 80% of the banks.

Well, Putin controls 100% of the banks. And all you need is is one way. uh for money that come in and out.

So I I you have uh the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying he's an advocate for full pull off of Swift, and he is pushing that today. It is interesting to watch the Biden administration in this environment. Remember, the president came out and said. No, these sanctions are better than SWIFT, and we're not going to do SWIFT right now. It's on the table at that press conference.

And then within twenty four hours, the Europeans said, We are doing it. in part because they had a phone call, a conference call with Zelensky, who said, this may be the last time you hear from me alive. We're fighting for European values and dying for them. And that moved the needle with the European leaders. But they started leading on not only sanctioning Putin directly, but sanctioning and doing the swift moves, as many holes as as are in them, but doing it.

And that had the Biden administration scrambling to Match up within 24 hours to the point where there's not a Federal Reserve chair officially because Jerome Powell's. Uh time ended February 5th.

So they had the Fed had to elect a a chair pro tem. a temporary chair so they could sign the documents. And do the swift maneuvers.

So they elected Jerome Powell. He actually voted for himself, which is very bizarre. But it all happened within 24 hours because the Biden administration was behind the Europeans. On what they were doing. It's amazing, Brett.

That's an important thing to point out. In the long run, I think it's great that Europe understands this is their safety and security in the long run. But it's also noteworthy that we're not leading. I mean, we're not leading. I mean, we're not, this is not our initiative.

The story used to be: America wants to do this, but he can't get our allies.

Now our allies are saying we're doing this, and America's playing catch-up. I mean, if you saw that Joe Biden was calling Switzerland to get involved and berating Germany to get involved, I'm like, okay, that's pretty much par for the course. We can't get them to spend on their own defense. They obviously set up deals with energy, knowing that eventually the Russians could hold it over their head. They did it anyway.

But this time, they got their wake-up call from the people under fire because I think they realized it could be them next. Yeah, and they realize how unstable or unpredictable at least Putin is. And so You have to give the Biden administration credit for dealing with allies and talking to them and getting them all, you know, together. I mean, that in and of itself is a big deal. But when it comes to the actual moves and pressing for the moves, it seems like they're 24 hours, 48 hours behind.

And so when critics say leading from behind, like the in Libya and other engagements, this kind of fits this bill, at least right now. Right. And just getting those weapons in is going to be risky. But we had a chance to get them in while the Russians were building up, and we chose not to. The Javelins and others, the way I understand it, and I could be corrected, that most of the Javelin missiles and these anti-tank operatives or the shoulder-fire missiles, they came during the bunch of the Trump era.

That the smaller arms came during the Biden era, and many of them were repurposed from Afghanistan because the Taliban took the country. Yes, it's true eventually, but remember, President Trump wanted to hold back weapons and aid to Ukraine in exchange for, allegedly, information about what Biden was doing and the talks that were going on. That's the whole impeachment thing that played out. But eventually, the weapons get there, and eventually that process moves forward after a little delay in the Trump, beginning of the Trump era. 100%.

That was one of... It's hard to get, sometimes you get your impeachments confused, but I do remember that. Yeah. But then he ended up, you realize, ironically, that day that he got a call from Nancy Pelosi that they're going to move on to impeachment hearings, he met with Zelensky, and they hit it off at the UN in New York City. He was making great progress.

And then we focused domestically again, and then we know what happened. He said they were doing Vladimir Putin's dirty work. And that's where they continue the Russian narrative that we had to live through for the past four years, where Donald Trump spoke on Saturday. Saturday, and for the first time in a long time, didn't bring up 2020.

Now, Brett, on your coverage tonight, barring any Titanic news from the battlefield, how are you going to break up your show? Are you going to talk about the State of the Union address? Are you going to talk about President Biden's 37 percent approval rating? Yeah. Listen, it's a big, big hurdle for this President as he gets ready for this speech.

First of all, the world's attention is someplace else. But it's a skeptical country that thirty percent of independents have approval of Biden. And the congressional physician just lifts the mask mandate for a Capitol Hill today. You know, Or yesterday, actually, was the official word, but it's right before the State of the Union. I mean, the science is impeccable in its timing for announcements.

So I think there's a a lot of hurdles that he has to get over. And I know he wants to be optimistic, but in reality, there are a lot of people who are thinking that the country is on the right wrong track. 29% say that it's on the right track. That's not a good number heading into an election year. And I just can't get over this math.

When the president's on record saying I'm doing everything I can to ease the pain of the American people because of inflation and energy prices, knowing he's not. He's not drilling on land. He's not pledging to do the things that the markets would affect, that would affect the price of oil. Instead, Jensaki came out and said it's time to get off fossil fuels. That's not going to be the message that's going to resonate with people outside political circles that aren't a member of the squad.

Yeah, that soundbite is really something. If you listen to it, She's saying that, yes, the President agrees that the country needs to get off reliance on foreign oil. But Domestic production, she says, is not the way to do it.

Now I get it. That is the wish in an ideological world when you're thinking green and climate change. that you're going to force the issue and then suddenly technology is going to take us to a place where windmills and batteries and solar and everything else is going to take over the energy. But we're not there yet.

Now, as a country, we're not there. And until you get there, we have very clean natural gas. and other elements that are much better how we used to do it. That could change the dynamic in the big picture.

So I think this administration is really vulnerable on that in this moment. You know, vulnerable on crime, vulnerable on immigration, vulnerable on inflation overall, but on energy, there's just not a good answer for that. I'm going to start a movement. I don't know if you want to be a part of it, to make every American buy a Tesla.

So, this way they could make great progress, look cool, and not use gas. Can you join me in that mission? Yeah, the only problem is is that the emissions you gotta get the electricity from somewhere.

So, where's it coming from? And um so all this stuff about getting to electric. We don't have the stuff in place yet. uh to be able to get a c a car across country. Electric.

True, and we don't have $100,000. I had that too. Frett, what a great fundraiser. It was fantastic over in Naples, Florida. Yeah, it was Yeah, it was so much fun.

You did such an incredible job, first class. Everyone had a great time, including my wife and my friends, my neighbors, who just love being there. Brett, how much did you raise, and can people still contribute? Yes, you can go to allstarpanellevent.com if you want to donate to Children's National. It's a great cause that helps kids around the world.

But we raised a record two point three million dollars. And that's really unbelievable. We we started this thing seven years ago. I think we did three hundred thousand the first year and six hundred thousand, then we did one point two. We had a COVID year where we did it all virtual.

We still raised a lot of money, but this year was really something.

So thank you to you and everybody who took part. It was a big event. Absolutely. Brett, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

We've been watching you all day, especially tonight on special report. Brett Baer, thank you. We'll see ya. Back in a moment. Listen and pick up on some things you didn't know before.

You're with Brian Kilmead. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmead. We need to have more agility and speed to put pressure to really for him to go back to the table and stop this insanity. It's insanity.

A lot of people are going to die. He's really got away with too much. And he understands that the West is weaken right now. And like in this martial sports, you take advantage of your weak opponent.

So we need to get stronger and we need to be quicker and help Ukraine to win this war because they fight it not just for them but for all of us. Absolutely. So get this too. This just came in. There's video now of President Zelensky signing an application, posing for photos, an application to join the European Union.

He's got 27 nations. NATO's got 30. You know, he wants to be in that. Also, the USN, the Russian and Ukrainian officials have concluded their talk. Talks.

We looked forward to seeing what happened there. The fighting has not slowed down in Kyiv, has not slowed down the second major city. And they do know that Russians have control of three cities for now. Uh in As well as the Donbass region, but there's fighting still raging there. The city's still going on, three cities inside the Ukraine.

So we'll follow all of that as it continues to unfold. And that was Victoria Spartz. She's a congresswoman from Indiana of Ukrainian birth, and she wants more from this administration. The rest of the world is acting. Even Switzerland has broken their vow of neutrality and said we are sanctioning the banks.

So many banks are in Switzerland. Many Russian oligarchs have accounts in Switzerland. Look out. Put the power of over 100 meteorologists and the worldwide resources of Fox in your hands with the Fox Weather Podcast. Precise, personal, powerful.

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