(NewsNation Now) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is playing the West by offering peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, NewsNation’s Leland Vittert said on “Morning in America.”
Russian and Ukrainian delegations were meeting for talks Monday with hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough after Moscow unleashed the biggest land war in Europe since World War II. More than 500,000 people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded the country last week according to the U.N., and the mass exodus showed no signs of stopping Monday.
Vittert said Putin knows what the West and other NATO countries want to hear and he will keep saying it while doing the complete opposite.
“Back during the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine, you saw the same thing that as Putin was encircling towns and shelling them and bombing them, he was saying, ‘Oh, let’s have peace talks, I’m ready to have peace, and we must have dialogue and on and on,'” Vittert said on “Morning in America.” “He’s an expert at playing to the West, and America’s desire and ideals, that diplomacy and talking and agreements can work out. You might equate it to a guy who’s debating over, you know, says he’s gonna negotiate over a pizza while he continues to eat the pizza that you’re negotiating over?”
On Monday, the Defense Ministry said extra personnel were deployed to Russian nuclear forces, and that the high alert status applies to all their components: the forces that oversee land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles and the fleet of nuclear-capable strategic bombers.
It was not immediately clear whether the Kremlin announcement means any nuclear-armed aircraft could already be in the air around Ukraine. But the move is a clear escalation.
U.S. and British officials played down Putin’s nuclear threat as posturing. But for many, they stirred up memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis and concerns that the West could be drawn into a direct conflict with Russia.
Vittert said to take the offering of peace talks with a grain of salt because of historic Russian doctrine.
“He wants to play to everyone’s sensibilities and idea that there can be peace and desire to continue to not have bloodshed. Meanwhile, we understand that there’s a column of Russian military vehicles, about three and a half miles long worth of artillery surrounding Kyiv and moving in that direction,” Vittert said. “The real danger here is that the Russians do what the Russians are trained to do. And Russian military doctrine says that at the time that your conventional forces you get bogged down and involved in a humiliating fight, which is what’s happening right now and the potential for a street district combat situation fighting an insurgency in Ukraine that the Russian forces are going to lose, you bring out tactical nuclear weapons to force capitulation upon the enemies. That’s their doctrine.”
Putin also stepped up his rhetoric Monday, denouncing the U.S. and its allies as an “empire of lies.” He described Western allies as U.S. “satellites which humbly fawn on it, kowtow to it, copy its conduct and joyfully accept the rules.”
This story is developing. Refresh for updates.
Watch “On Balance with Leland Vittert” weeknights at 7/6C.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
