Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Friday that the war in Ukraine was largely sidelined at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, because European leaders were trying to avoid accountability for policies that prolonged the conflict and deepened the human toll.
On "Finnerty," Holt said the absence of sustained discussion about Ukraine, despite the presence of President Donald Trump alongside nearly every major European leader, was no accident.
"For four years now, you and I have talked about this, and every single year I tell you, Oh, it's going to be over soon," Holt said. "Well, that would be conventional wisdom unless there's an entire group of people that want to see it keep going."
Holt argued that European leaders should be pressing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to follow Trump's lead in pursuing negotiations to end the war.
"The European leaders need to get with President Zelenskyy and encourage him to follow President Trump's leadership to get the war behind them," he said. "The carnage is now into the millions of lives."
Holt said no European leader has been willing to take the political risk of engaging Moscow directly or publicly backing Trump's negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"And yet, we don't see one leader in Europe that wants to go to Moscow, sit down, talk with [Putin], support the president's negotiations," he said.
Asked why threats from Moscow, including warnings about possible nuclear escalation, received little attention in Western media or at Davos, Holt said leaders are avoiding scrutiny for earlier decisions that derailed peace efforts.
"They don't want to face the accountability," he said. "They don't want to face what they've done to not support this."
Holt pointed specifically to former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, saying he intervened early in the war to halt near-completed peace talks.
"Weeks after this war started, [he] went and blew up the very near-accomplished Istanbul peace goals," Holt said. "Don't worry Zelenskyy, fight on."
Holt also warned that European leaders fear domestic backlash once the war ends.
"They're outrunning the accountability from this," he said. "What they'll be facing once this war is done ... is European citizens who are like, we have invaders in our countries.
"You're wiping out our cultures. You're taking our civil rights."
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