This week Ukrainian President Zelensky said that Mariopol has been depopulated and destroyed by Russia. As the weeks go by and the war in Ukraine enters its fifth month, I spoke with my friend David Goldman from Asia Times, the Claremont Institute and PJMedia about the situation on the ground and what Russia’s destruction of Ukraine, and the West’s buckling from the sanctions they placed on Russia means. David and I looked at the gap between President Biden’s rhetoric at the outset of the war — Putin has to go; The ruble will turn to rubble; Putin is a war criminal — to U.S. rhetoric today: We won’t dictate to Ukraine what it needs to do in ceasefire talks with Russia. The clear message the U.S. — and Europe are sending is that they want to climb down from the limb they climbed onto at the outset of the war when for no particular reason, they believed that they could cause Putin to be ousted from power by sanctioning Russia and giving Ukraine defensive weapons.
Towards the end of the hour, David and I moved to Israel and what the growing likelihood of a Russian victory in Ukraine — and against U.S. and NATO — mean for Israel. How should Israel navigate the minefield of rising and falling global superpowers and their labyrith of competing interests in the Middle East.
Join us for a challenging and riveting discussion.
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