Russia Prepares for Prolonged Conflict in Ukraine

"This is going to go for a while because neither side is anywhere close to what they've decided is victory," says Council President Ivo Daalder on NBC News Now with Morgan Radford.

Will Sweden and Finland join NATO?

"Three or four months ago, no one would have thought that Sweden or Finland were going to be interested in joining NATO. All of that changed on February 24. That was the day that Putin decided he would invade another country without reason, without provocation, and Finland and Sweden have decided that they need the security of NATO. So they are applying soon for NATO membership. In the meantime, the United Kingdom now publicly, the United States privately, and other countries, are saying: 'we will have your back Sweden and Finland until that day when you join NATO.'"

Can diplomacy end the Russia-Ukraine war?

"At some point we will come to having to have both sides sit at the negotiating table and find a way to halt the war. But not every war ends, necessarily, with an immediate negotiation. The situation needs to be right for negotiations and it isn't, because Putin has not achieved what he needs to achieve and can't justify the very massive cost that the Russians have taken—militarily in terms of deaths and casualties, economically because of the sanctions. And at the same time the Ukrainians have made very clear that they're not going to settle for anything less than Russian troops out of Ukraine. So until the military situation evolves in such a way, is so stalemated for so long, that either or both sides decide it's time for a negotiation, I think this war is going to unfortunately be continuing."