Vladimir Putin's ambitions extend beyond Ukraine to “destroying Europe and NATO,” says expert Mark Toth Russian President Vladimir Putin is “simply trying to buy time” through renewed peace talks with Ukraine, with little prospect of a breakthrough that could end the war, a leading security expert has told TVP World. Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for their first peace talks since February as US President Donald Trump's envoys launched a new push to end the war in Ukraine. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the US-brokered meeting as “very productive,” without giving details. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the talks “constructive and quite substantive,” saying that they had included humanitarian and security issues. ‘Destroying Europe and NATO’ However, Mark Toth, co-founder of Intrep360, which analyzes American national security and foreign policy, warned that Putin was using the negotiations to advance his broader ambitions of undermining European security and NATO. “Putin is simply trying to buy time,” he told TVP World. “This is just one more step, in my view, of Putin's intent on destroying Europe and NATO. And he's trying to do it from within.” 'One more winter of war' “I don't think they're going to lead to any kind of breakthrough. And I think Kyiv knows that we're in for one more winter of war,” he added. Toth welcomed the prospect of a permanent US military base in Poland as a way to strengthen European security, but said that any new arrangements should reinforce rather than replace NATO's existing defense structures.
Mark Toth said Putin is using negotiations to pursue a wider ambition of ‘destroying Europe and NATO.’ (Contributor/Getty Images)
