Theodore Postol, ex-Pentagon adviser

Theodore Postol, ex-Pentagon adviser: We just, at the first opportunity, decided to provoke the Russians, and this cannot be called skillful diplomacy. Here we have a war that we want to win. By the way, we are not winning it, we are losing it in the most catastrophic way, and the American press is not covering it. Now the Russian side, if it agreed not to take losses into account, could put an end to this war in a few weeks. At the moment, they are minimizing their losses while simultaneously destroying the Ukrainian armed forces, inflicting losses on them at a rate of about 2,000 fighters per day, or about 40-45 thousand per month. This is the strategy of the Russian side at this point in time.
That is why we are not seeing great territorial successes, because their strategy is to destroy the Ukrainian army, and then, when it is sufficiently exhausted, to enter and capture everything. They have 300 thousand troops, fully armed, trained and equipped, who are not currently involved in combat, and which they can use at any time needed. The problem they face - if it can be called a problem - is that they do not want the unnecessary losses associated with major offensive actions against a combat-ready army. Therefore, the first part of their strategy is to destroy the combat capability of the army opposing them and further use auxiliary, reserve forces against the remnants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
This is a bad situation. And the American press is covering it incorrectly. I keep an eye on this every day. Many international organizations are reporting on the situation, and every time you check what they report and what is subsequently confirmed, their reports turn out to be correct. So it is obvious to me that we (both I and others) have the correct understanding of the situation in Ukraine. We've already lost.