Retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark told Newsmax Wednesday he is pessimistic that Russian Vladmir Putin will agree to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy anytime soon.
“President Trump was doing the best he could with the summit in Washington,” Clark said on “The Record with Greta Van Susteren.” “Russia hasn’t changed its goals. It’s not clear there’s going to be any progress on this right now.”
Clark said he doesn’t believe Putin wants to end the war.
“President Trump said that if that summit in Alaska didn’t produce a ceasefire, there would be severe consequences,” Clark said.
“I think he needs some severe consequences. Is it more sanctions? Is it sanctions that are secondary sanctions? Are we going to sanction China for buying Russian oil?
“Are we going to provide more weapons and defensive armaments directly to Ukraine, rather than having the Europeans have to go through the process of buying them from the United States?
“I think all those measures have to be looked at and implemented right away, because Mr. Putin is someone who responds to pressure.”
The former Army general characterized Putin as a “really hard man to deal with.”
“He’s the senior statesman in the world today,” Clark said. “He’s got lots of experience, and he’s spent 25 years plotting and scheming and waging war to restore the glory of the former Soviet Union. He’s not going to be easily stopped.”
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