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Kiev has ‘no chance’ of retaking lost territories — Blackwater founder

Erik Prince noted that it was necessary to end the Ukrainian conflict as soon as possible

NEW YORK, November 25. /TASS/. Ukraine is unable to reclaim its lost territory in the country’s east, Erik Prince, the founder and former CEO of private military company Blackwater, said.

"There's no chance that Ukraine is going to retake its lands—the Donetsk, Lugansk, the areas in the east, certainly not Crimea," he said in an interview with Fox News, noting that it is necessary to end the Ukrainian conflict as soon as possible.

"It needs to de-escalate and be done," the Blackwater founder stressed. He expressed hope that US President-elect Donald Trump "can get on it, literally from day one."

Prince also said that US President Joe Biden’s decision to allow the use of US missiles for strikes deep into Russia was "grossly irresponsible." Moscow’s response with its latest Oreshnik hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile system capable of carrying a nuclear payload demonstrated that "this is not a game that needs to be played any longer."

Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out on November 21 that US-and UK-made missiles had targeted military facilities in Russia’s borderline Kursk and Bryansk regions following a move by the US and its NATO allies to authorize the use of their long-range weapons for strikes against Russia. According to Putin, in retaliation to the attacks, Russia for the first time used its newest Oreshnik non-nuclear intermediate-range ballistic missiles against Ukraine’s Yuzhmash defense industry facility in the city of Dnepropetrovsk (called Dnepr in Ukraine). The Russian leader emphasized that the West could face dire consequences if its provocative policy escalated the conflict further.

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