Tom Cooper is convinced that the war in Ukraine is dragging on because the West is blackmailing Putin.
Austrian military expert, Tom Cooper's expectations for the end of the war, are "not very rosy", he said in an interview with TSN.
And one of the reasons is that the EU and NATO are influenced by Putin, instead of supplying Ukraine with enough weapons.
"The problem is that Western governments do not take the situation seriously. Putin is still blackmailing them. You see this excitement around this land corridor to Kaliningrad, which Lithuania has closed. They did not close it completely. They said: we will not miss the goods on the EU sanctions list. Everything else can be transported. Russia can still deliver goods to Kaliningrad by ship. Nobody is going to disturb them. Of course, Putin immediately started blackmailing. And in NATO, it's like, "Oh, my God," in the EU, too: "Oh, my God," Putin is so bad and so disgusting, and so on. Instead of saying, âEnough. Sit in your Moscow and shut up." I'm sorry for that expression," he said.
He is convinced that geopolitics must be abandoned and armed enough to defeat the Russian army.
"This is the only way to force Putin to give in. He will not give up as long as he thinks he can still achieve something in Ukraine. And he can still achieve something while his army plans new offensives," said the expert.
He is convinced that the number of weapons supplied by partners to Ukraine is meager.
"It is impossible to defeat Russia other than to destroy their army. And if you push them at least in the direction of the 2014 line of contact, very soon you will see how Putin will change his behavior," Cooper said.