Ukraine can potentially force Putin to end war - Belgian expert
Belgian defense expert and retired Colonel Roger Housen believes that Ukraine’s campaign of long-range and medium-range strikes is seriously undermining Russia’s ability to wage war in the long term.
He made these remarks in an interview with Ukrinform.
“The military power of a country is what we, military, call the combat power of the armed forces times the potential of a country to continue the fight for a long time, times the will of the people to fight. So, there are three factors which play their role in determining the military power of a country. And if you can reduce one of those three factors or all three of them you can win the war.
What Ukraine is doing now is especially attacking the potential of Russia to continue the fight by its deep strikes and mid strikes, and that's in my opinion the best way to change the course of this war,” the expert believes.
At the same time, he believes that reducing the Russian population’s will to wage war—given the country’s size and population—could be “a very difficult task.”
“So decreasing the potential of Russia to continue in the long run this war is the best course of action, and Ukraine understood this very well,” the expert emphasized.
“What we have been seeing in the past five to six months, that is the deep strikes first of all, and the mid strikes, are really hurting Russia by degrading the oil and gas infrastructure, by attacking the military industrial complex of Russia, by attacking all elements needed to continue this war in the long run. Ukraine can force Mr. Putin to stop the war and to start the negotiation round.”
As reported by Ukrinform, President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that if Russia’s war against Ukraine is stopped now, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin will have no chance to occupy another country.
Photo courtesy of Roger Housen