Mark Gertling, one of the former commanders of US forces in Europe, on Sunday mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on Christmas Eve that Moscow was ready to negotiate “acceptable solutions” to end the war in Ukraine.

“Putin said on Christmas Eve that he was ‘ready for negotiations.’ After I “dealt” [și eu] with the armed forces and the Minister of Defense of Russia, I learned a lesson: even on small things, Russian officials do not negotiate … they pretend, then lie, and then break agreements,” Gertling wrote on his Twitter page.

Although Gertling has officially retired from the US Army, he has remained active in the US public sphere, as after the start of the war in Ukraine on February 24, he gave interviews to numerous publications about his experience with the Russian military.

Less than a month after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the war, Hertling explained the mistakes Russian engineers made in designing the country’s tanks, referring to a delegation to Moscow of which he was part as a former tank driver.

In May, he re-released a shocking video showing Russian tanks running over Ukrainian civilian cars for fun, saying soldiers who do such things should be court-martialed.

“The garbage that took over Mariupol, for the sake of fun, shoots at houses and crushes the cars of local residents with tanks. It is obvious that the Russians did not come here to protect (Russian minorities), but to steal, kill and destroy. Defenders don’t act like that,” said the Ukrainian-language message that accompanied the footage released by Hertling, the commander of US forces in Europe from 2011 to 2012.

In mid-November, Hertling announced that Russia had “finally” imposed sanctions against him.

The “offer” of peace made by Vladimir Putin

In an interview given on the eve of Christmas to state television in Moscow, the Russian president said that Moscow is ready for negotiations with all parties involved in the conflict in Ukraine.

“I believe that we are acting in the right direction, we are defending our national interests, the interests of our citizens, our people. And we have no other choice but to protect our citizens,” Vladimir Putin said on Saturday.

“We are ready to negotiate with all those involved in order to find acceptable solutions, but it depends on them – we are not refusing negotiations, they are,” the Kremlin leader said.

However, in the same interview, he assured that the Russian army will destroy the Patriot air defense system, which the United States announced to supply to Ukraine.

“Of course we will destroy her, (probably) 100%!” he said, adding that the West is trying to “disunite” historical Russia, justifying the invasion of Ukraine by saying that it wants “the unification of the Russian people.”

Last Thursday, US President Joe Biden officially announced that the US would provide Ukraine with a Patriot anti-aircraft battery as part of the latest military aid package prepared in Washington for Kyiv’s armed forces.

Biden said this during the historic visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi to Washington, the first trip of the Kyiv leader outside the country since the beginning of the Russian invasion.

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