'Washington sees Europe as inconsequential,' former US commanding general in Europe tells Euronews
In an interview with Euronews’ flagship morning show Europe Today, former commanding general of US Army Europe General Ben Hodges warned that the continent is “slowly waking to the realisation” that it cannot count on the US as a fair partner.
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00:00We'll be joined by General Ben Hodges, a former commanding general of the US Army Europe and an infantry officer who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
00:10Since retirement back in 2018, Ben Hodges has now become a leading analyst and author on European defence and security.
00:18Ben, welcome to Europe Today. It's so lovely to have you with us, General.
00:21Maeve, thank you for the privilege.
00:23Look, how realistic, in your view, are the current efforts to bring Russia and Ukraine to the same table?
00:30Well, I think it's sad for me to say this, but I think Europe and Ukraine, including Ukraine, knows that the United States has a primary interest, which is business with Russia, after this is all concluded.
00:44With the revelations of this past week about what Mr. Whitcoff was doing and Jared Kushner with their Russian colleagues, I think that Europe is slowly waking to the realization that they cannot count on the US to be a fair interlocutor here.
01:04And that the outcome, if it goes the way that Mr. Whitcoff and Jared Kushner wanted to go with the Russians, is going to be a massive problem for Europe, because it will be such an unsatisfactory outcome for Ukraine that I think we'll see millions more Ukrainian refugees heading into Central and Western Europe.
01:23So you think President Trump has no empathy here for Ukrainians or what's happening on the ground, but it's purely just business interests?
01:28Absolutely. I will give him credit for being sincere when he says he wants the killing to stop.
01:35The problem is the administration's approach has always been doomed from the start because they didn't care about the origin.
01:45They didn't care about the history or the geography involved and, in fact, approached it as a massive real estate deal.
01:52So, I mean, Secretary Rubio, who I really expected much more from him, said in the beginning, Ukraine, you're going to have to give up some territory here before they even started.
02:02And Secretary Rubio, he's meant to be in Brussels this week for important NATO talks, but he's skipping that meeting.
02:07Is that unusual?
02:09It is unusual, but that's that's part of the problem.
02:12The United States has under this administration has made a decision, I think, or prioritization of Western Hemisphere, Indo-Pacific region, probably Middle East, and then Europe is number four.
02:29And I think that despite the best efforts of many European countries to fulfill their responsibilities and to take on more of the responsibilities, the United States really sees Europe as inconsequential, except maybe for some business purposes.
02:46So this is this is important.
02:48And it pains me to say that after being a NATO officer and a U.S. Army officer for all these years.
02:54But Ukraine and Europe together are going to have to.
02:58And by the way, they do have the capability.
03:00If you add together the the industry, the wealth, the populations, the technologies, there's no reason that Europe, including Ukraine, cannot stop Russia.
03:10What they lack is the self-confidence and the political will.
03:13So and now we're seeing Ukrainians being pressured into conceding territory, which is, of course, a red line for them.
03:19How do you think this war will end?
03:22Well, the Ukrainians are not going to do this.
03:24I mean, there's no way they can they can do this because this is not dirt.
03:28These are people.
03:30There are people.
03:30There are four million Ukrainians that live in these occupied territories of the parts of Ukraine that the administration is pressing them to give up.
03:39And anybody that knows anything about Russia knows that this is not going to be the end, that Russia is not going to say, OK, we're good.
03:46We don't want anything else.
03:47Nobody seriously believes that.
03:50And so the Ukrainians, I think.
03:53And by the way, one of the false premises of this whole thing is that Ukraine is losing the war.
03:58That's just not the case.
03:59And after 11 years, Russia still only occupies 20 percent of Ukraine with all the advantages.
04:05We see reports every day about Russia's wartime economy is struggling.
04:11Their great railroad, which is an essential part of Russia's ability to do what it does, is in deep trouble.
04:18And now some of the oblasts or some of the oblasts are not even able to pay these famous bonuses to Russian soldiers.
04:25So I think Ukrainians can see that better than we can.
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