Americans should have a clear understanding of how any aid the U.S. sends to Ukraine will be used as, at this point, Russia has won the war, says retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer.
"All this explaining away the obvious, trying to attribute to everything from the cycle of the moon to Joe Biden trying to articulate how we're on the verge of defeating Russia. Russia has been able to achieve about 80% of its military objectives," Shaffer said Friday during an appearance on Newsmax's "Chris Salcedo Show."
Russian President Vladimir Putin "stated with a great deal of clarity, and again I'm not a fan of Putin, but Putin went through and did a four-hour speech outlining what the Russians have set out to do, how they've achieved certain objectives and how certain things they want to do," Shaffer added, referring to Putin's end-of-year marathon annual news conference held Thursday.
"Putin wouldn't be saying he's getting ready to achieve his final objectives if they're losing, so ... any amount of money at this point without a clear understanding of three things, first how will it be used, secondly what are the in-state objectives that benefit the United States — not Ukraine, us — and three, how do we go about accounting for that money that's spent to make sure it goes where it's supposed to?" Shaffer said.
"Unless those questions can be answered, at this point it would be just more money thrown after bad. [House] Speaker Johnson said this clearly in his comments, his speech after meeting with Zelenskyy this week and he's completely correct."
Putin, during his news conference, said there would be no peace until Russia achieves its goals, which he says remain unchanged after nearly two years of fighting.
He also highlighted Russia's successes in Ukraine and the flagging support by Kyiv's allies.
"Ukraine today produces nearly nothing, they are trying to preserve something, but they don't produce practically anything themselves and bring everything in for free," he said. "But the freebies may end at some point and apparently it's coming to an end little by little."
Putin noted "an improvement in the position of our troops all along" the front line.
"The enemy has declared a big counteroffensive, but he hasn't achieved anything anywhere," he added.
Biden on Thursday touted a new military aid package worth $200 million for Ukraine.
The U.S. has already sent Ukraine $111 billion in weapons, equipment, humanitarian assistance and other aid since Putin launched his invasion more than 21 months ago. But the latest package is stalled.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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