No long war: Putin's elite only have one way of retaining power – political scientist Piontkovsky

He shared his opinions on Espreso TV.

"The concept of a long war is not viable. The current situation at the front is favorable for Ukraine, even without aviation and ATACMS. Just imagine if they had 200 F-16s and 200 ATACMS missiles. The war could have ended as swiftly as the Azerbaijani anti-terrorist operation in Nagorno-Karabakh. This is the reality that people in Putin's environment are now facing," the political scientist said.

Andrey Piontkovsky also mentioned that Soviet people grew up watching the movie about Stirlitz and recall the final days of Hitler in the bunker. What were the “Himmlers” thinking about then? They wanted to make peace with the Americans with the sole purpose of retaining power in postwar Germany.

"This is exactly what Putin's 'Himmlers' are thinking about. They are currently thinking about only one thing: how to retain power in Russia, which is losing the war. The only way they can retain power is to get rid of Putin and offer the West and Ukraine their services in the organized withdrawal of Russian troops from the occupied territories. Therefore, we may not even have to wait long for the realization of this psychological giant threat to Putin and his regime, which was voiced in Washington. Because it can be realized much earlier than in the spring," Piontkovsky suggested.

According to him, if the Ukrainian army captures Bakhmut or Tokmak in a week or two, it will serve as an unavoidable catalyst for turmoil within Putin's power elite. This is because there is a new war reality - one marked by the certainty and inescapability of Putin's Russia facing defeat.

• On September 15, the Wall Street Journal wrote that Ukraine is close to being supplied ATACMS missiles by the United States this fall.

• At the same time, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the Ukrainian military would use the US missiles as they see fit.

• On September 22, during the talks, US President Joe Biden assured Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Ukraine would receive a small number of ATACMS missiles.