Former ambassador to Ukraine thinks Ukraine may win its war against Russia - "The Takeout"

This week, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor joins chief Washington correspondent and "Takeout" host Major Garrett to discuss the war in Ukraine and what Washington can do to assist Kyiv. 

Taylor currently serves as vice president, Russia and Europe at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

He predicted the Russian invasion will end in victory for Ukraine if its military continues to receive the lethal and non-lethal aid it needs. Taylor believes the Ukrainians will rebuild their country, but they won't forget Russian brutality.

"Ukrainians hate the Russians for what they're doing," Taylor said.

This episode was recorded on May 4, 2022.

Highlights

• Can the Ukrainian military prevail? "I do think they can win. They think they can win and they can win if we provide them the means - if we provide them the weapons and the ammunition and the fuel and things like protective gear. If they get the big things and the small things, they will win because they'll fight to the end. They will not give up. They will fight until they win."
• Russia has made Ukraine a hostile enemy on its border: "They'll be a proud nation — independent, sovereign nation, after they prevail, after they win, after their victory. And the Russians will have a fierce enemy on their neighbor — on their border for generations. The Russians have — this is a big blunder. Why would you want to have a hostile nation on your border? Why would you want to have a nation — the Ukrainian nation who is now  they hate them. Ukrainians hate the Russians for what they're doing. And you can see why. It is inhumane. It is unbelievable. It's unbelievably brutal what the Russians have done to Ukrainian people, not to mention the citites. So they will rebuild but they're not going to forget."
• Russia and use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons: "We all have to worry about that because President Putin has made what we would think of as irrational decisions before. If he's put into desperate straits, what she will what will happen is Ukraine is going to push him back. The question is, does he crossed that threshold into use of weapons of mass destruction? So the answer is yes. We have to be prepared."
• U.S. and allies have provided Ukraine real time intelligence: "We are watching essentially World War Two kind of combat in real time with overhead pictures that we can go down to see individual tanks from the satellites. We can see the individual trenches. We can see what's happening. Just as you say, open source. In addition, the United States and allies have made extremely effective use of intelligence to highlight and to out the Russians about what they might be doing in preparation for false flag operations, other kinds of-  but the other good thing, the amazing thing on this intelligence sharing has been the United States providing and other allies providing the Ukrainians with real time intelligence on Russian movements, enabling the Ukrainians to counter them."

Executive producer: Arden Farhi

Producers: Jamie Benson, Jacob Rosen, Sara Cook and Eleanor Watson

CBS News streaming production: Eric Soussanin

Twitter: @TakeoutPodcast

Instagram: @TakeoutPodcast

Facebook: Facebook.com/TakeoutPodcastExecutive producer: Arden Farhi

Producers: Jamie Benson, Jacob Rosen, Sara Cook and Eleanor Watson

CBSN Production: Eric Soussanin 
Show email: TakeoutPodcast@cbsnews.com
Twitter: @TakeoutPodcast
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