John Bolton Clashes With Russian Television Anchor Over Ukraine Invasion: ‘Russia is Losing This War’

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton went head-to-head with a Russian journalist, colliding in a lengthy interview over the invasion of Ukraine, his hawkish foreign policy record, and everything in between.

Bolton spoke to Oksana Boyko of RT, which has seen major downsizing and international scrutiny for pushing pro-Russian narratives throughout the Ukraine invasion. After Bolton squarely blamed Russia for their “unprovoked aggression” in Ukraine, Boyko pressed him on the U.S.’ involvement in foreign wars, and whether Ukraine is truly an existential security interest to America.

“Didn’t the Kremlin use all the diplomatic means at its disposal to limit the unwelcome and some would say malicious U.S. presence close to Russia’s borders?” Boyko asked.

“There’s simply no truth to what you’re saying,” Bolton responded. “NATO didn’t move towards Russia’s borders — just for the benefit of people in Russia who might not hear this — It was the nations of Eastern and Central Europe, once the Warsaw Pact broke up, after decades of repression by the Soviet Union that came to NATO and requested membership so they could create their own free governments and societies.”

Boyko followed up by asking Bolton if he thought Moscow would find it “provocative” to see the U.S. offering military resources and other aid to Ukraine. The two also sparred over the legitimacy of Russia’s security interests and the international conduct of Russia, Ukraine, the U.S. before the invasion.

“You disagree [military aid to Ukraine] poses a threat to Moscow,” she said, “but Moscow is within its own right to determine what it sees as threatening. It signaled its displeasure, didn’t it?”

As Bolton argued that there’s no evidence suggesting Ukraine was a threat to Russia, he clashed with Boyko as he claimed the Kremlin is using Ukraine’s defensive capabilities as a “pretext” for the invasion.

“And does it have those adequate defense capabilities right now?” Boyko asked. “Did that premise work out well?”

“Its doing a lot better than the Kremlin expected. That’s for sure,” Bolton replied, which drew a retort of “well that’s not good enough” from Boyko. Bolton continued to refer to Russia’s invasion setbacks before proclaiming “Russia is losing this war.”

At this point, Russia has failed to achieve its objectives. We don’t know exactly what Russia’s casualties are, but I suspect they’re gonna be a lot of families in Russia missing their sons in the coming year.

Bolton’s remark came just after a pro-Kremlin tabloid claimed approximately 10,000 Russian troops died in the war for Ukraine. The outlet scrubbed the figure shortly after releasing it, claiming they were hacked.

The interview continued with Bolton and Boyko going back and forth over the former’s hawkish record, Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilians, and Russia’s false claim to have invaded Ukraine on a “de-Nazification” campaign to deal with terrorists and paramilitary groups.

Watch above, via RT.