Ukraine's leadership should be learning a "big lesson" after deliberations from Poland, NATO, and U.S. European Command gathered intelligence showing that a Russian missile was not at fault for killing two Polish farmers earlier this week, retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier Gen. Blaine Holt, a former U.S. Deputy Military Representative to NATO, told Newsmax on Thursday.
"It was an accident, but here's where it gets very dangerous," Holt commented on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "The Ukrainians, led by President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy were out there with 'this is a Russian missile. They're attacking Poland. Everybody go to war.'"
But after the deliberations, even a meeting to discuss invoking Article Four, or the declaration that a NATO country is under threat, wasn't needed, said Holt, and Ukraine should know that it is OK to say that it didn't know what happened and that further investigation was needed.
"In the fog of war, you can get all kinds of reports, and like I've been taught, the first one is always wrong," said Holt.
He conceded that there's always a possibility there could be more to the incident, but Ukraine should realize that NATO has the resources to assess what happened.
Zelenskyy has doubled down on his claims that Russia was at fault for the missile strike, but doing that is "sowing division and discord in Brussels," said Holt.
He also slammed the Biden administration after a spokesperson said that no matter whose missile hit in Poland, the incident was ultimately Russia's fault for starting the war in Ukraine.
"They just calmed this down, and you're saying nope, the Russians did it," said Holt. "They could learn this lesson as well, that maybe we need to back that off a bit on who did it."
Meanwhile, it is in the best interest of NATO and the European Union to stay unified on their stance about the missile strike, to keep consultations going.
"In light of the energy and the food crisis that Europe is enduring, they're going to have to constantly reassess what level of support they can afford to lend to Ukraine," said Holt. "Nobody is denying that the Russians are in a war that is grinding away this country and our hearts go out to the victims in Ukraine that are suffering from this."
The United States must also learn where all of its money for Ukraine is going, "because there is a lot of it," said Holt.
"I'm going to give you three letters, FTX," he said, pointing to allegations of connections between Ukraine and Democrat megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried, the head of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that filed for bankruptcy on Friday and is under investigation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
"A wad of cash has been going all over the place and as Americans, all we want to know is what are we spending our money on," said Holt.
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