Putin Won’t Stop Until He Controls Ukrainian Territory, Says Political Scientist

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has reached its eighth day, and in the opinion of political scientist Peter Schechter, Russian President Vladimir Putin should not stop the incursion until he “has completely controlled Ukrainian territory”.

In an interview with CNN This Thursday (3), the foreign policy analyst and director of the Altamar podcast assessed that the coming days and weeks could be “even more dangerous” in relation to the war in Ukraine.

However, Schechter considers that Russian troops have suffered major strategic defeats in recent days. According to him, Putin wanted to show Russia’s military capability, expose NATO and the West’s weaknesses and reinforce that Ukrainians are, in fact, Russians with an accent.

“The Russian president has not achieved any of the three objectives”, pointed out the expert. He also listed other difficulties of the Russian army, such as supply problems and soldiers who are “simply abandoning the tanks because they want to go home and don’t want a war against a nation considered friendly to the Russians”.

In Schechter’s view, there is still no way to resolve the conflict. “I don’t see the possibility of stopping this and I don’t see that economic sanctions will stop Putin,” he said.

The political scientist claimed that the sanctions were “made to destroy an economy” and that “slowly it will be possible, to destroy the Russian economy”. However, the expert stressed that he believes that “Putin will not stop until Kiev is completely in Russian hands”.

Schecter also ruled out the possibility of a world war, saying that “the world is not prepared to have a war between NATO and Russia”. “The only option left is these economic instruments that are so tough and so strong,” he added.