"It’s becoming manifestly clear to more and more people that Kiev is gonna lose the war," John Mearsheimer, an American political scientist and Professor at the University of Chicago, told the YouTube channel Duran, referring to the Ukraine conflict.
"We can talk about exactly what it means ‘cause that is a very complicated issue, but there’s no question that […] the Russians are going to win," while Ukraine "is going to suffer a defeat and indeed NATO’s gonna suffer a defeat as well," Mearsheimer pointed out.
According to the pundit, "there’s no plausible strategy" for Kiev and Brussels to rectify the situation, something that he said is a "huge problem and a devastating defeat for the West."
What’s more, there are “no formidable military forces in Europe” that could fight in Ukraine or "even provide much deterrence" to Kiev without US support, the professor added.
The comments come after French President Emmanuel Macron recently said in an interview that he doesn’t rule out a potential scenario of his country’s military conducting an operation to "confront Russian troops" in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, for his part, warned that the possible deployment of a European military contingent to Ukraine would not change the situation on the battlefield and would only lead to serious consequences for the Kiev regime.
European head of states, NATO leadership and the White House, in turn were quick to say that they were not considering sending their militaries to Ukraine, with France’s Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne not ruling out that the French military could be send there for demining operations and weapons production on Ukrainian territory.
In a separate development, Putin stressed during last month’s State of the Nation address to parliament that Russian forces are "firmly holding the initiative" and are successfully advancing in a spate of operational areas in the special military operation zone."