Varga: Putin must be defeated in Ukraine and that is the only way to permanent peace in Europe, he was inspired by Stalin

Russian President Vladimir Putin must be defeated in Ukraine and that is the only way to lasting peace in Europe, political scientist and journalist Boris Varga said.

He said that Russia's aggression against Ukraine represents Putin's war against the West on the territory of Ukraine.

"He (Putin) decides and while there is such a neo-totalitarian regime in Russia, not only will Ukraine never have peace, but it is a constant and growing threat to the European Union and the West." Putin must be defeated in Ukraine and that is the only way to permanent peace in Europe," said Varga in an interview with the MINA agency.

Varga earned a master's degree in international journalism in Lviv (Ukraine) and a doctorate in contemporary political systems at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade. He is an expert on Eastern and Southeastern European nations and their international relations.

For many years he lived in Ukraine where he worked as a journalist. In journalism and research, he mainly deals with international topics, the region of the republics of the former Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union.

Varga believes that Putin was inspired by Stalin, who reached Berlin and brought Russia enormous war booty and the actual expansion of the empire.

"That's why, just as the USSR was defeated in Afghanistan at the end of the 80s, it had to leave that country, so Russia should leave Ukraine and return to its borders. All peace agreements below that are only temporary solutions and preparation for a new conflict," warned Varga.

According to him, if Putin is removed from power, there are greater chances that such a lasting peace will come sooner, even if the negotiations on its establishment and transition have dragged on for years.

Varga said that during the war, which has been going on for more than a month, Ukraine has offered enormous resistance to the Russian aggressor, that its army is not only defending itself like a lion, but is launching a counter attack and repressing the enemy.

"Russia declares that it has abandoned the northern direction of the attack on Kiev, although this should not be believed and should not be quickly rejoiced." "Putin is playing a war game of surprise," Varga believes.

He said that if Russia's goal was the blitzkrieg to conquer the capital of Kiev and force the Ukrainian authorities to capitulate quickly, as evidenced by the nature of the beginning of the aggression, then it failed immediately on the second day of the war.

"It was not only a bad assessment by Russian strategists about Ukraine's defense potential, but also about their own capabilities," Varga said.

He said that after a few days, Russia allegedly switched to plan "B", which is the rocketing of infrastructure on almost the entire territory of Ukraine and the occupation of major cities along the border with Russia and in the south, the territories that go to the Black Sea.

Varga assessed that the goal of that phase was the occupation of large cities such as Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Mariupol, Kherson.

He said that, however, Russia has suffered huge losses in manpower and armed capacities since the beginning of the aggression.

"Russian victims exceed 15 thousand soldiers, more than 130 planes, the same number of helicopters and over 600 tanks. Russian soldiers are demotivated, scared. These are mostly young recruits who were initially told to go to a military exercise," said Varga.

As he said, during the first Ukrainian ambushes and attacks by Turkish drones, they abandoned their tanks and armored vehicles and fled in the direction of Russia or surrendered to captivity.

Varga said that Russia did not achieve results in this second plan either, because it failed to form its own government in the cities it almost captured, such as in Kharkiv.

"Already, bare-handed people with Ukrainian flags incomprehensiblely bravely went to peaceful protests in front of tanks and well-armed Russian soldiers, singing the anthem of Ukraine and asking the occupying army to return home," Varga pointed out.

He said that the third phase of Russia's aggression is the destruction of civilian targets, buildings where people die, in order to intimidate Ukrainians and drive them into exile.

"Now, in the fourth phase, the aggressor Russian army is focusing on the east, as if to occupy as large a territory as possible in the Donbass and eventually merge those separatist territories with the annexed Crimea, where its biggest obstacle is Mariupol, which is controlled from the inside by Ukrainian forces," said Varga.

He assessed that this phase of the war can be a real challenge for the Ukrainian army because it is a direct two-sided conflict, and Putin spares neither manpower nor equipment.

Varga believes that due to the destruction and civilian casualties, this fight is reminiscent of the war in the former Yugoslavia, the aggression against Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, except that the victims are numerically greater.

"As with Milosevic's army, it is not entirely clear what the goal of this war is with the Russian army and Putin either," said Varga.

According to him, Russia cannot completely occupy and thus hold Ukraine.

"What is certain is the consolidation of the occupied territories, which can declare independence from Ukraine and join Russia. This is the model of creating separatist ethnically suitable "countries", which are also the spoils of war of the aggressors. That's how it was in the nineties with Serbia, that's the direction Russia is going now," Varga assessed.

Speaking about the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, Varga said that they are ongoing, and that this is something common in war, as well as that they heard from Istanbul what Ukraine is ready for in order to sign a peace agreement.

He said that for now Ukraine agrees to neutrality and the absence of a foreign military factor and strategic weapons on Ukrainian territory, but that Kiev agreed to this even before the Russian aggression.

"There is a general disagreement on both sides regarding the recognition of the annexation of Crimea and the independence of Donbass, and these positions seem insurmountable," said Varga.

He added that Russia no longer mentions the "demilitarization" and "denazification" of Ukraine as political and demagogic reasons for launching aggression.

Varga believes that, given that Russia has not achieved a single significant military goal, the peace talks may turn out to be a farce and buy time for the Russian army, which needs regrouping and recovery due to losses.

"From the Chechen war in the 2008s, through the "five-day war" in Georgia in 2015, until the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbass in XNUMX, Putin always received the greatest support from the Russians in the final phase, when he was winning and "bringing peace", Varga pointed out. .

He assessed that Russia is manipulated by the media and that support for the war is high, between 50 and 80 percent, and that Putin himself at home has 83 percent of support.

Varga said that this is a green light for the extension of the war and a sign that Putin can still go on destroying, that the Russians are ready to suffer despite all the sanctions and Western isolation.

"But everything has its limit, Putin is aware of that, that's why in the coming weeks he will try to return from Ukraine with the "booty" and try to "bring peace", Varga said, adding that Ukraine should prevent him from doing so with West.

"If Russia's aggression against Ukraine is viewed from the perspective of the Minsk 2015 peace agreement, the so-called Minsk-2, Putin could try and gradually occupy Ukraine, which could last for years, with a cease-fire and new peace agreements that Moscow will not honor." , warned Varga.