Putin aware he made mistake by invading Ukraine but will never admit it: Ex-NATO commander

NATO's former Supreme Allied Commander James Stavridis on Sunday claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin "realizes he's made a mistake" as he ordered the invasion of Ukraine. In an interview with The Cats Roundtable radio show on WABC 770 AM, the ex-NATO official said that as the war still rages on, Russia's authoritarian leader may have realized that it was a bad choice to invade Ukraine, considering the fierce resistance that invading troops met from Kyiv's forces. 

"Has Putin realized he made a mistake or does he still think he did the right thing?" John Catsimatidis, the show host asked the former NATO leader.

He responded by saying:  "I think in the dark, quiet hours at two o'clock in the morning when he wakes up, he realizes he's made a mistake. Publicly, he'll never admit that. Never. He'll continue to maintain this fiction that Ukraine is run by 'neo-Nazis.' Ridiculous, obviously." 

'He'll never admit it publicly..'

The former NATO commander furthermore asserted that Putin has been pushing narratives that NATO has somehow pushed him into this corner and prompted the conflict but that isn't true. "Everything that has happened is of Vladimir Putin's doing including the invasion, the sanctions that have followed, the military pushback. I think he knows it in his heart, he'll never admit it publicly," he continued.

When asked if the two warring sides will negotiate for peace, NATO's Catsimatidis said that it may be about six months that it will take for the two governments to negotiate a resolution. "What's driving us toward a negotiation are the difficulties Putin is facing as he burns through troops," said Catsimatidis adding that the destruction of Russian military equipment and troop losses could be another reason. 

"He is burning through capability. I'd say, six months from now he's going to be in very dire straits," the former NATO leader said referring to Russia's Putin.

"On the other side of the battlefield, Zelensky has to recognize that the patience of the West and the continued flow of cash and weapons is not infinite. I think both those factors will ultimately drive the sides to come to some kind of negotiation..."