"We are already witnessing a definite turn in the war. From now on, Putin has no useful moves". This was stated to the Bulgarian National Radio by former defense minister Todor Tagarev.
"No one is talking about Ukraine ceding territories that are not under Russia's control anymore. Given that Europe is united, the majority of Americans believe that Ukraine should be helped, I think that Zelensky and his team managed to resist these attempts, talking about peace, to have Putin achieve more from a military point of view," he believes.
According to him, Putin never had a serious intention to negotiate and reach a peace agreement. According to him, the Russian president still believes that the war can be continued and get positive effects from it:
"Putin still thinks that he can achieve more. He has no useful move at the moment, because if he stops the war, he will immediately be attacked internally and very seriously. Over the past year, Russia has occupied an additional 4,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in exchange for over 400,000 dead soldiers. The Ukrainians attack energy infrastructure, logistics hubs, and weapons warehouses in Russia every day, every night, and quite successfully. The Ukrainians do this regularly. Their industry is working at full speed. This will continue. Having no useful move, Putin clearly believes that his only option is to continue the war and hope for some miracle. This miracle did not happen through Trump".
Yesterday, Russia launched a hypersonic missile "Oreshnik" for the second time, this time the hit was near the Polish border. According to Tagarev, however, this was a warning to Europe:
"After several European countries declared their readiness to send troops to the territory of Ukraine in the event that a peace agreement or a ceasefire agreement is reached, and these troops will most likely be deployed far from the front line, mainly in Western Ukraine, Russia demonstrated to them with this move that regardless of where they are located on Ukrainian territory, they can be the subject of a strike that will be difficult to prevent or even impossible. This was the main reason for using "Oreshnik" in this case - to give this signal to the Western countries and for Moscow to try to break this unity once again or to create a new sense of fear and anxiety in the respective societies".
The countries that will participate in this operation must obtain permission from their own parliaments, the former military minister reminded. He ruled out the option of Bulgaria deciding to send troops to the territory of Ukraine and explained this with the psychosis in Bulgarian society.
"Most likely, we will join with participation that will guarantee the security and safety of economic activities, maritime traffic, and the removal of sea mines in the Black Sea. In any case, we already have this operation of the mine-fighting group and it can simply be expanded to some extent. Unfortunately, this information came from the leader of "Vazrazhdane", and not from the government. The government ceded the communication initiative to the Russophiles in the Bulgarian parliament, and did not come out to state it clearly enough and convince the public of the real facts - that the security of the Black Sea is in our interest, the security of Ukraine is in our interest and it is absolutely in our interest for us to participate in this way".
There is obviously no appetite for deploying allied troops or a no-fly zone if there is no peace agreement, Tagarev stressed, adding that there are other ways to support the security of Ukraine. According to him, the goal is to deter Russia from taking new aggressive actions. According to him, Ukraine's European allies are ready to take on this deterrent role.
"There are plenty of opportunities to contribute to this operation, without necessarily each country deploying troops on the territory of Ukraine", he was categorical.
Todor Tagarev noted that the US has no intention of sending troops to the territory of Ukraine.
"We still do not have clear information whether the US supports this declaration of intent. We do not know whether Trump has agreed. If he agrees and it needs to go through Congress, there would be no problem, the question is who will get it into Congress. The majority of Democrats, but even more Republicans support Ukraine," commented the former defense minister.
According to him, we cannot expect the US to act with military force against Russia. What the US administration can do is deepen the sanctions and enforce them more strictly, he believes.