JAMES STAVRIDIS: His objective was
to conquer 100% of the country.
He went into it, by the way, already in command,
if you will, of 15%.
He's only managed to add 5% to that.
He now controls about 20% of Ukraine.
That's a failing grade.
That's kind of where it is right now on the Russian side,
despite their efforts to kind of grind out a little more
territory.
On the other side, Volodymyr Zelenskyy
has really risked it all.
When he looks over his shoulder, he sees his wife, his children,
his parents, his elders, his civilization,
his cities, his language.
That's the ultimate game of Risk.
And he is leveraging all this support from the West
and doing, frankly, a pretty good job holding
the Russians relatively static.
They've had a few gains in the southeast.
So that's the current state of play.
In the "how does it end" category,
I'll give you three words--
no good options.
And I wish there were a better frame to provide,
but I think where this thing is going to go over the next three
to five months, a grinding war in the southeast,
neither side really achieving any breakout result.
Putin's burn rate-- business term alert here.
His burn rate, if he were a corporation, is pretty bad.
He's losing a lot of people, a lot of material,
and a lot of support throughout the world,
war crimes being revealed.
His burn rate's bad.
You know, I always say, General Sherman in the Civil War
said war is hell.
It's also expensive.
And his burn rate is such that by the end of the year,
he almost certainly will be looking for a negotiation.