China would be the winner if it becomes the peace broker between warring Ukraine and Russia, retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt said Monday.
Appearing on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," Holt warned that any peace talks guided by Beijing would put Europe and the U.S. in danger.
"If it does go in that direction, then what we will see is China, again, replacing the United States in a diplomatic sense, using the levers of diplomacy and matching them with military power to achieve an effect that the winner in the equation wouldn't just be Russia. The winner in the equation would be China," Holt said.
"China would have access to the ports, the agriculture, would eliminate Ukraine from ever thinking about [European Union] or NATO membership. And Russia would have the buffer that it's been seeking the entire way through."
Holt added: "China has already said several times it wants the war between Ukraine and Russia to be over, but they also want to pull Ukraine away from the West. ... They could absolutely turn their ally Russia loose militarily on Ukraine. There are several other weapons that Russia could bring to bear. Ukraine knows it."
Holt said Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is going around to European leaders now because "he has to."
"What they have been saying, in so many words, is they want to do this encounter offensive in a very big way," Holt said of Ukraine. "They've been talking about it for months, but it's going to be stalled out as long as the logistics support is not there."
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