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Democrat Senator Warner Claims Russia’s Military Clearly ‘Not What It Was Built Up To Be’

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On Wednesday, Democratic Senator Mark Warner said that after invading Ukraine, Russia’s military is “not what it was built up to be,” implying that the Russian invasion is going poorly, performance-wise.

The commentary is notable in that, if true, it weakens the case for American politicians’ demands that Ukraine needs immediate, massive military assistance.

Warner made his remarks during an interview on CNN’s “Situation Room.”

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Sen. Warner: ‘Clearly, at every turn, the Russian military is not what it was built up to be’

CNN host Wolf Blitzer told Warner, “You and most of your colleagues, I’m sure, think Putin is a war criminal for what he’s done in the past few weeks in Ukraine. I know you’ve done a briefing. House chairman Adam Schiff came out and dismissed rumors there’s any serious movement on a potential diplomatic move between Ukraine and Russia. What is your understanding?”

Warner replied, “On that diplomatic deal, I didn’t get a chance to fully press that. It was there. This war will continue. I would pray for a diplomatic solution, but in many ways, that would be left up to the Ukrainian leadership and the Ukrainian people.”

While there were some tentative attempts to reach a cease-fire, they have not been successful.

Warner then questioned the strength of Russia’s military.

“Clearly, at every turn, the Russian military is not what it was built up to be,” the senator said. “Their execution, frankly, in terms of not even taking out the Ukrainian air command systems, the fact that over half of the Ukrainian air force and more is still up and operating is, frankly, malpractice on the part of the Russian military planners.”

Warner’s comments are very curious. If Russia has not yet even attained air supremacy over Ukraine, it begs the question of why so many – including Ukrainian President Zelensky – have demanded a NATO-enforced no-fly zone over the country.

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Warner Backs Ukraine Aid

Warner added, “I do think it’s important we continue to send them additional assistance into literally tens of thousands of antitank tools, tremendous increase in the number of Stingers, and I applaud the administration while not getting into the actual systems, but applaud them saying we will get longer range anti-aircraft tools to Ukrainians where they could gain some control over their skies if they have those longer-range anti-aircraft tools.”

“So I think the Ukrainians are doing quite well, but we need to continue to rush arms and equipment and not just us, but our European allies and others as well,” he finished.

Warner is in agreement with Americans on this point. Pew’s poll shows that Americans support various actions against Russia. 

Actually, more than a third would support direct military action, even though there are risks of nuclear war.