Former U.S. Ambassador William Taylor discusses the Ukraine-Russia war and NATO at the All Markets Summit.

Video Transcript

- Ambassador William Taylor is an American diplomat, government official, and former military officer. He was US ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009 under presidents Bush and Obama and acting ambassador under President Trump. During the Arab Spring, he oversaw us support to Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria.

Taylor also served in various key diplomatic roles in Iraq and Afghanistan and led us assistance to the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. With that long and respected career, few American officials have more experience or a greater understanding of Ukraine and the threat Vladimir Putin and Russia now pose to the world.

Well, Ambassador Taylor joins us now to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its effect around the globe. Welcome, Ambassador. First, for those who are tuning in, how would you characterize where we are in terms of the phase of the conflict, given these recent moves by Russia, the annexation, the civilian attacks, and of course, these Iranian drones as well and the nuclear plan?

WILLIAM TAYLOR: Yes, Rachelle. So, yeah, we're in a phase that is characterized by Ukrainians succeeding on the battlefield. And the Russians, desperate to change the subject, are trying to do other things. So President Putin, knowing that he's losing on the battlefield, is calling up reserves. He is conducting these referenda that you mentioned in parts of Ukraine. He says he's annexing parts of Ukraine. He's reminding us that he's got nuclear weapons.

His problem, of course, Rachelle, is that he's losing on the battlefield. His soldiers are dropping their weapons in the northern part of Ukraine where they're fighting. They are abandoning their tanks . They are running away from the oncoming Ukrainian military, the soldiers. And so President Putin has a real problem on the battlefield.

So he's trying to change it up, so far unsuccessfully. His attempt to recruit more soldiers is failing. His attempt to placate the people on his right in Russian politics is failing. He sees the people in Russia fleeing the country. So President Putin has a real problem, Rachelle, in all of these attempts to regain the momentum. He's failing in that.