‘This is Potentially the Largest Conflict in Europe Since 1945,’ CNN Analyst Warns as Satellite Images Show Russian Troops on Ukrainian Border

Reacting to satellite images showing Russian troops moving along Ukraine’s border, CNN national security analyst James Clapper warned that if Russia invaded, it could potentially be “the largest conflict in Europe since 1945,” the end of World War II.

Clapper served as the Director of National Intelligence during Barack Obama’s presidency, and also held high-ranking intelligence roles in the George W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations.

CNN Newsroom anchor Pamela Brown introduced the segment by showing “new satellite images of Russian troops on the move,” taken earlier Sunday by the imaging company Maxer. The images, Brown said, “showed intensified activity among Russian units close to Ukraine’s northeastern border.”

“How much impact might these images have in adding to U.S. confidence that an invasion is truly now imminent?” Brown asked Clapper.

“Well, Pam, I think it’s kind of over but the shouting,” Clapper replied. “There are not many more indications and warnings that we’re gonna get, and if the latest imagery shows a move towards the borders, well, that’s about it.”

Clapper added that “as an old intel guy” he was “really struck” by how the intelligence, like these satellite images, had been used so publicly, calling it “a great thing.”

Brown agreed, noting the “noticeable difference” from the situation in Crimea in 2014 to now, with U.S. officials putting out so much intelligence information in an attempt to deter Russia.

In response to Brown’s question about what he thought was going on in the region, Clapper replied that his tendency was to “take this at face value.”

“It’s hard for me to believe that you have 190,000 troops — which is three-quarters of the Russian conventional military — arrayed around Ukraine, and now for Russia to say, oh, April fool, we’re not going to do it. I think we’re past that.”

Putin, he continued, “has personally painted himself into a corner” and “almost has to do something,” but “what shape and magnitude this attack might take, that, of course, remains to be seen — it could be very limited or it could be a much bigger, much bigger thing.”

Brown asked him if he thought this could “morph into a large scale conflict” and what that might look like.

“It certainly could from just the physical standpoint,” Clapper replied. “One hopes it wouldn’t. Here we are in the year 2022 and this is potentially the largest conflict in Europe since 1945, at the end of World War II.”

“So hopefully cooler heads will prevail, or hopefully Putin has a different, much more limited military objective than is evident right now,” he said, “I think there’s  much more here to play out. I think there is a chance for diplomacy but it’s kinda down for the count right now as far as I can tell.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.