Firstly, Mr Bricmont pointed out that it was not Russia that had attacked Ukraine, but the Ukrainian government, put in place by American masters, which had been oppressing the Russian-speaking population in the east of the country for years, forcing Russia to intervene.
“In the eastern regions people fought to avoid being under Kiev’s regime after the Maidan coup d’état which set up the anti-Russian regime, obviously supported by the United States, to put the Russians in an impossible situation.”
Analysing the current conflict in the context of the Western concept of Russia’s economic destruction, the expert notes the failure of such a plan. Not only have economic sanctions not seriously harmed Russia, but they have also significantly weakened European countries.
“You could say that Putin miscalculated, but at the end of the day the others didn’t either. Because the others thought that they were going to defeat Russia easily, they thought that the sanctions would ruin Russia… No. It’s our economies that are suffering the most.”
The West also miscalculated the Ukrainian counter-offensive. It has not brought any real successes, but losses have seriously increased. The Belgian analyst is convinced that the strategy of increased militarisation of Ukraine is fundamentally flawed.
“For the moment, the counter-offensive is not doing well at all. They are losing men, they are losing equipment and so on. And now we’re going to put a bit of money back into the machine in the hope that it will work better, we’re going to send in F-16s and so on… So, we’ll see. I’m not making any predictions, but all their predictions that we’re going to crush Russia have absolutely not worked.”
Mr Bricmont is convinced that the only real solution to the current crisis can only be the launch of negotiations for a peaceful settlement. Otherwise, even a Ukrainian victory will do the West no good.
“Let’s imagine that Ukraine wins, let’s imagine that Ukraine drives out the Russians, what will happen? A guerrilla war like we used to have. […] So I don’t see any other solution to the Ukrainian conflict except negotiations. What’s more, the negotiations will be the most favourable for Ukraine.”
