Russia cannot win conflict in Ukraine, former Seal Team Six commander insists
Russia cannot win the war with Ukraine - but Kyiv will only prevail when Nato lets it, according to a former Squadron Leader with the US Navy's elite Seal Team Six.
Chuck Pfarrer, who later became an author and screenwriter, penning a number of Hollywood films including the 1996 Pamela Anderson movie Barb Wire, now spends much of his time analysing the war in Ukraine.
He told Forces News he was "absolutely confident that this war is unwinnable for Russia".
"That being said, I see three or four more years of war, hard fought, tough reversals, advances," he said.
"But this war is not winnable by Russia."
Mr Pfarrer said the war for Russia was like "1971 in Vietnam for the Americans".
"Russia has not lost the war yet, but it is impossible for them to win it with the equipment they have now, the leadership they have now and the troops they have now," he said.
"And this is a war Ukraine is going to win, when Nato lets it win the war."
Critical to that, he says, is giving Ukraine more air defences - a need underlined by Russia's recent attack on a children's hospital in Kyiv.
"In this 21st century war, one of the pillars of ground manoeuvre warfare is air defence sovereignty," he said.
"You've got to be able to make sure that no Russian aircraft can put glide bombs on your troops.
"And it is laid at Nato's feet.
"We haven't given Ukraine the key to those manoeuvre warfare options because we are strangling them with air defence."
Mr Pfarrer added: "They've lost 500,000 casualties in this war.
"That's 10 times the number of people lost in Vietnam during 10 years of the Vietnam War. To me, the loss rates are unsustainable.
"Their equipment has shown itself to be sub-par. When you see a group of 20 or 30 guys with a cell phone saying 'We're not going back to the front, we're still wounded, we're not getting any food, we're not getting ammunition' that's what's called a mutinous assembly.
"It's not a misdemeanour. It's a crime. It's a capital crime in an army to do that in a combat zone."
Mr Pfarrer says the standard of Russian troops is so poor they are failing to make any meaningful gains, even when they have vast numerical superiority.
He said this was exemplified by the number who are dying at the hands of Ukrainian FPV drones.
Mr Pfarrer also said he would like the US to take the brakes off and allow Ukraine to fire US missiles into Russia itself, in order to hit the Russian military in its own backyard.
Even with the recent setbacks he believes Ukraine will prevail - provided it is given the support it needs.
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