Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, responsible for overseeing the Ukraine policy during Trump’s presidency, said the Biden administration has done “too little, too late” to stop the Russian invasion. Vindman states that the country’s invasion of Ukraine will be “catastrophic” for America and its European allies.
Military and cyber conflict on the cards?
The former U.S. Army officer has sued four Trump associates for launching an “intimidation and retaliation” campaign against him. He also asserted that he feared Russian interference in Ukraine could quickly escalate into a cyber and military fight far beyond Ukraine’s borders.
Speaking as part of Yahoo! News’ podcast “Skullduggery,” Vindman stated, “This could very well not end up being a limited war. We already have NATO allies — the Baltics, Poland, the U.K. — saying they’re prepared to support Ukraine. Russia has to contend with that. There’s a chance that based on the fact that there are safe havens outside of Ukraine, the Russians might feel like they’re backed into a corner, especially if they’re suffering heavy casualties and need to respond.”
Vindman voices concern over possible cyber offensive
He also added that one “could envision it as a legitimate scenario — this is not a far-fetched hypothetical — in which Russia conducts a major cyber offensive against Ukraine in preparation for its conventional war. It seeks to attack and disrupt Ukrainian critical infrastructure communications, power grids, all the kinds of utilities.”
Vindman predicts that this situation could spread across borders as it historically has in Europe and reach the United States. He stated that in this case, America would be compelled to respond. “That could escalate very quickly, too easily, the entire European theater,” he said.
He added, “It has the very real possibility of spilling over in a big way, whether that’s in cyber or in actual military confrontation. It has the real probability of really destabilizing Europe because thousands and thousands of refugees are going to be flowing into Europe. It has the real probability of potentially expanding with greater Russian aspirations, casting eyes on the Baltics or something of that nature. And all these things are really detrimental to U.S. interests.”
Biden administration called out by Vindman
In the past, top Democrats have praised Vindman for blowing the whistle on former President Donal Trump’s conduct. However, he didn’t hesitate to call out the Biden administration for not responding more forcefully to the Russian threat to Ukraine. Vindman said, “The senior policymakers didn’t seem to come around to this threat until really quite late. You only start seeing [them] take things seriously in the November and December [2021] time frame.”