Both sides in the Ukraine-Russia war are "getting close to strategic exhaustion," said former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie.
"It's interesting that the Ukrainians sent another message to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that they can reach out and touch his generals when they want to," Wilkie told Newsmax's "American Agenda."
"I think this is close to 12 senior generals who have been killed inside of Russia," he added, referencing the Russian general who was killed by a car bomb on Friday.
"This one is important because he was the head of operations for the Russian army in Ukraine. But I think we've reached a point that both sides are getting close to strategic exhaustion. You don't see any more Russian tanks on the battlefield because they don't have any more tanks.
"What you're seeing is the use of North Koreans. And now the appearance of Chinese to fill in the ranks, because, as the president noted today, the Russians are experiencing about 2,000 casualties a day."
The Ukrainians are "reaching the point where they have to stop in order to regenerate the forces that they have," Wilkie told Newsmax.
"So I do think there will be an agreement in the next few weeks. I think [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy] will be the first one to ask the president to finalize it, and that puts the pressure on Putin."
But he cautioned Russia on attacking civilians.
"If Putin continues to flaunt the president by attacking civilians, as he did this week and as he did the first time the president proposed a ceasefire, the one thing in the president's back pocket is that we can supply the Ukrainians with things that they need, that the Russians can't respond to in terms of the quality of our munitions," he said.
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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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