President Joe Biden and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy are pushing the world to the brink of war out of desperation, said retired Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, and Russia is weaponizing food by withdrawing from a wartime agreement to allow grain exports from Ukraine through the Black Sea, added retired Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt.
"I think they are out of desperation," Shaffer said Thursday when asked by Newsmax's Chris Salcedo whether the pair were pushing the world into war following reports that Ukraine started using American-made cluster munitions in the southeast as part of its counteroffensive.
"Miscalculation and fatigue, I think, are two of the biggest dangers we face. ... The Biden administration tried to raid the hawk missile defense systems of Taiwan, for goodness' sake," Shaffer added on "The Chris Salcedo Show."
"As much as I think they need to do something to help Ukraine, you're basically sending the equivalent of a Ford Pinto against modern military systems in the form of the Hawk, so miscalculations and desperation are very dangerous right now."
Holt said Russian President Vladimir Putin is multiplying his adversaries by withdrawing from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, struck last year and brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to alleviate a global food crisis following Russia's invasion.
"They wouldn't do that if there wasn't another shoe about to drop," Holt told Salcedo.
"And what I'm worried about is what we're seeing happen in Odesa night after night right now. It's just the opening act of a new offensive where the Russians try to close off that clothesline. We can see right now the Russians have no problem with food as a weapon; in fact, they've closed off Nagorno-Karabakh and they're just watching on as the Azeris starve out 120,000 people who could be dead out of this. And this is happening right under the eye of the media. So the Russians are using food. It's very dangerous, and it's dangerous for the ... globe."
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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