Russian President Vladimir Putin is “miscalculating on a cosmic scale” in his war against Ukraine and in his dealings with President Donald Trump, former Undersecretary of Defense Robert Wilkie told Newsmax on Monday.

Appearing on “Wake Up America,” Wilkie pointed out that Putin “is still holding 18% or less of Ukrainian territory, which is exactly where he started when he invaded Ukraine a couple of years ago.”

Wilkie, who is co-chair of the Center for National Security at the America First Policy Institute, also stressed that the Russian leader “is not winning this war. He is in a terrible stalemate, and the fact that he has to call on North Koreans who are probably the bottom of the barrel of their army, which is pretty low to begin with, shows that he is not doing very well.”

Read more at Newsmax© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.