Putin's task now is to hold on to some kind of 'honorable draw' - political scientist Piontkovsky

He said this in an interview with Antin Borkovskyi, host of the Studio West program.

"Putin now has the following task: he has already realised that he will not be the ruler of the world and that he now needs to stay in power in a country that has lost the war. His task now is to cling to some kind of 'honourable draw' that he can sell to his population. This honourable draw is the plan that Ukraine has been forced to accept all along, the so-called Korean option. Look how wonderful it is: North Korea, South Korea, the war was stopped, North Korea remained a dictatorial regime, South Korea became a great state in 50 years. But Ukraine will never agree to this," he said.

"Now a game is being played. Putin understands that there is very little time left before the West takes a decisive step: "I've been suggesting this in every speech I've given for the last three months - to erase the last red line. It is that only Ukrainian pilots should be at the controls of Western aircraft. There are not that many Ukrainian pilots trained in the West. One hundred, or better, two hundred aircraft in the skies of Ukraine will determine the outcome of the war in a few weeks, because with their help Ukraine will finally throw the Russian group out of Crimea, which will cause the political collapse of the regime," Piontkovsky said.

According to him, France is getting closer to this with every statement by Macron. 

"He made two statements during the Normandy meeting. The first was that France provides Mirages. The second is that France is providing technical advisers and instructors," the political analyst added.

• On Thursday, June 6, French President Emmanuel Macron said that France plans to announce the transfer of Mirage 2000 military aircraft to Ukraine.
• Subsequently, France invited about 10 countries to join the coalition of foreign instructors in Ukraine.