William Taylor: “He wants to be the great Russian leader who brings back Ukraine into the Russian world, into the Russian empire, into…”

What’s at stake here is the security of Europe. What’s at stake here is a democracy fighting an autocracy. What’s at stake here is freedom that we care about.

What we need to do is put maximum pressure on Putin so that he finally realizes that he cannot win this war.

What will really force him to stand down and to look for a way out is continued Ukrainian success on the battlefield.

We need to maintain support. And other things pull at that attention, just exactly as you have described. It is no less important now than it was two months ago for the Ukrainians to win.