Bond said:"Putin has made it clear that his war aims have not changed at all."

“From the very beginning of the war,” he said, “Putin has sought to wipe Ukraine off the map as a sovereign independent state – to turn it into a vassal state at best, and at worst, just another part of Russia.”

"I don't think these goals have changed, judging by the statements he and people around him have made in recent weeks," he added.

"I think Trump's problem is that he thinks he understands Putin, but he doesn't. Putin, I think, understands Trump very well," Ian Bond said.

According to him, Putin"wants this to be a deal between two superpowers - even if Russia is no longer a superpower - that would eliminate the Europeans and, most importantly, the Ukrainians."