Ukrainian embassies and consulates around Europe are on heightened alert after being targeted with suspicious packages that include blood-soaked envelopes and animal parts. This comes just days after a letter bomb sent to the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid exploded, injuring a Ukrainian employee.
Ukraine's foreign minister says he believes this is a well-placed land campaign of terror and intimidation, and CNN's Matthew Chan spoke to him. Well, it started with an explosion at the embassy of Ukraine in Spain.
But what followed was this explosion was weirder, and I would even say sick, because we started receiving letters with eyes, animal eyes. Cut off animal eyes. Animal eyes. Yes, in some cases. In one case, it's most probably an eye of a cow and an eye of a pig.
In another case. Let me ask you, who do you suspect? Who does Ukraine suspect of being behind this? Well, of course, I feel tempted to say to name Russia straight away, because first of all, you have to answer the question, who benefits from that?
And it's definitely this campaign is aimed at sowing fear and terrorizing. Ukrainian diplomats. Your infrastructure of the country has been attacked repeatedly by Russian missiles. You've got an antiaircraft system that is straining to overcome those incoming attacks.
How concerned are you that this country will be unable to survive the winter unless Patriot missile systems from the United States are deployed to this country? I'm not concerned at all. We will survive.
I do not have any single doubt that we will get through this winter. The question is, what will be the price of getting through this winter? And definitely having Patriots, having other advanced air defense systems, having them delivered in Ukraine within weeks, not months, will dramatically lower the price and will allow us to defend our cities and our critical energy infrastructure.
Are you concerned that the approval for those Patriots has not been given yet? Well, patriots became a symbol. This is a us. Technology. But now the time has come to make decisions. So we're having this discussion.
And, yes, I will not conceal that. It will be a huge help. It would really help us to defend the country and to minimize the price we are paying for surviving during the winter. You heard President Biden yesterday in a press conference with the French leader suggesting that he would be prepared to sit down and speak with President Putin of Russia to try and find a negotiated end to this conflict.
How did that make you feel as a Ukrainian, that the American president was suggesting that it would be open to that conversation? Well, I think you missed one point from President Biden's remark because he said that this can only happen if Putin is ready to withdraw from Ukraine.
And this is a very important detail because if any leader of the world is ready just to sit down with Putin and talk behind our back, that is a problem. But if the condition for the conversation is the withdrawal of the Russian army from Ukraine and the restoration of our territorial integrity, we are fine with that.
Do you believe there is any possibility finally, the final question? Do you believe there is any possibility at this stage of any sign of? The green shoots of a peace process. Is there anything that gives you hope on that front?
No, as we are anticipating another massive missile attack by Russia, and the goal of this attack is to kind of bring destruction to our energy system. I don't think countries behave like this if they genuinely want peace.
And as long as Putin prefers war, we will prefer to fight and defeat him on the battleground. All right. I want to bring in former CIA chief of Russia operations Steve Hall. Steve, thanks, as always, for being with us.
I want to begin by getting your reaction to this disturbing report reports heard. Blood so blood-soaked, aniand mal parts being mailed to Ukrainian embassies. What do you make of that? I think I have to agree with the Ukrainian foreign minister there.
I suppose there are a lot of different possibilities, and of course, the investigations will continue, but I think his question is right, and that is, who benefits from this? And the answer is Russia.
So in addition to that, of course, we know that the Russians, for the longest time, have done strange and brutal things outside of Russia including assassinating, dissidents and others who are anticutin figures, shooting them in parks, poisoning them.
So really, when you look at it in that context and also the Russians talk a lot about hybrid warfare. In other words, nontraditional means, it's not too much of a stretch to think that this is probably most likely some sort of Russian activity.
And, Steve, we're also getting some new reporting today that Putin plans to visit the Russian-occupied area of the Dambas region in eastern Ukraine. Does that tell you he feels secure enough about that part of the country right now?
What does it say to you? No, I don't think it's an indication of his security. I think what it's an indication of is his really strong desire to show Russians that, yes, this remains part of Russia. Remember, he claims to have.
Annexed that part of Ukraine into Russia, but he doesn't control all parts of it, and many Russians know that or have questions about that. And so he wants to go and show that, yes, this is indeed part of Russia, else I wouldn't be walking around here.
I also think that it's probably irritating to him to see sort of a steady flow of Western leaders into Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine when his military is not doing as well in the areas that he claims to control.
So I think this is almost more for domestic consumption than anything else, Jim. And he's been doing a lot of that lately. We saw a meeting with those Russian mothers days ago and so on. Steve, president Biden opened the door to talk to Putin.
If Putin is looking for a way to end the war in Ukraine, Biden added, he would also do it. In consultation with NATO allies in Moscow, the Kremlin said Putin is, quote, open to contacts and negotiations.
What do you make of all this? Yeah, again, I think the Ukrainian foreign minister has got it right. Biden is not shutting down the idea of diplomacy, but he is putting a very important condition on it, which is that if Russia agrees to withdraw entirely from Ukraine, then discussions can begin.
One of the things that you hear a lot of, Jim, is you hear a lot of politicians saying, well, this is Ukraine's decision. And on one level, that's right. And it is my great hope that we continue to provide, as we meet in the west, the United States, as many weapons and other assistance we can to the Ukrainians.
That said, if the west either tires of this or loses focus on this, which is what Russia is counting on, then it's going to be much harder for the Ukrainians to decide their fate. They can only decide their fate if we give them the tools with which to do it.
So let's hope that that continues. All right, Steve Hall, thank you very much for that time. We appreciate.