Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told reporters on Monday that Ukraine likely can’t wait for U.S. weapons to arrive before launching a major offensive.
Reuters reported Friday that senior U.S. officials advised Ukraine to hold off on beginning a major attack against Russian forces until the latest supply of U.S. weaponry is in place and training has been provided.
“I don’t think they have any choice,” Holt said on “Wake Up America.” “They can’t really listen to the warning. The sad part is that this type of leak would get out there on internal discussions between advisers to the Ukrainian military. This helps the Russians greatly if they’re talking about taking a pause because logistics can’t come to bear, the newest weapons can’t get on the battlefield.
“If you know these things aren’t going to be in the country for months, use the threat of these elevated, much higher tech weapons to get people to some sort of negotiation table because Russia doesn’t want to see the rest of its armed forces depleted or wiped out. They’re contemplating a new mobilization. This is great pressure on Putin’s government if he has to go do that, that means we’ve got some advantages.”
Holt was asked about reports that Russia has suffered 180,000 killed or wounded in Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin began his unprovoked invasion on Feb. 24.
“They [the dead and wounded] do not matter to Putin. They don’t matter at all,” Holt said. “If you look at the Russian way of warfare going back through history, the frontline soldiers are considered cannon fodder in their system, and, you know, that’s the root ball of why we see the atrocities committed on the battlefield.
“They rape, they plunder, they abduct in addition to the killing, and that’s the culture that is the Russian military, unfortunately. It’s not a professional service.”
Holt was asked whether Americans should be worried when they hear Russian officials that threaten countries supplying Ukraine with more powerful weapons would lead to a global catastrophe.
“The hyperbole is just all over the place. It has been since the start of the war,” Holt said. “They don’t measure words … [Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry] Medvedev especially, and then some in their media … but the most important thing strategically we should look at is: As the Russians get further and further their pressure, and they get into trouble internally, does that cause Putin or the Russian military to throw, what I would call, a ‘Hail Mary pass’ and change the entire equation with maybe an invasion out of Belarus, a weapon maybe we haven’t seen on the battlefield before. I think there’s a very worrisome possibility that that could happen.”
Before concluding the interview, co-hosts Rob Finnerty and Alison Maloni asked Holt about the COVID-19 resurgence in China.
“Millions are dying,” said Holt, citing the number of crematoriums running a “24/7 pace.”
“It does look like [Chinese President] Xi Jinping is going to go down in history as the greatest killer of Chinese people surpassing Mao by quite a bit. We could have up to 30 million dead since just December alone.”
