General Ben Hodges, an ex-commander of US forces in Europe, and current head of the Center for European Policy Analysis, is interviewed for the Kyiv Post by Tatyana Popova.
– POPOVA: What can you say about the supply of anti-tank guided missile ATGM, NLAW and Javelin in such numbers? What kind of weapon is this, and why’s it being delivered to Ukraine in such quantities now?
– HODGES: So, the decision by the Biden administration is to continue delivering Javelin anti-tank missiles. I think it’s an important decision. This is a real capability, it’s the same weapon that we use. It’s the best weapon that a soldier can carry and employ.
So, this is a significant capability, and to have so many will give Ukrainian soldiers a very good ability to stop Russian tanks, Russian armored vehicles and, of course, Russian commanders will be aware of this. It will cause them to be very concerned, especially if they go into villages or cities or through close areas.
This is a good weapon. And I think not only does it give your soldiers a good capability it also sends a signal; the United States is committed to helping our Ukrainian friends. And it’s a signal to the Kremlin that we’re committed to helping our Ukrainian friends with real capability.
I would also like to see us give more air defense capability to Ukraine. I’m concerned about Russian drones, Russian helicopters. So the Stinger is what we use. It fires very well, and is what one man can use without too much training. I would like to see us give more of those.
So far, the United States has authorized Latvia to provide some of its Stingers. I’m not sure why we are not providing them from US stocks but it could be a matter that we just don’t have many right now. So at least in the interim, Latvia is providing some that they have.
But for sure me and several other Americans that recently visited Kyiv, particularly General Breedlove, Former Supreme Allied Commander, have strongly advocated for providing the latest generation Stinger to Ukrainian armed forces. I do know that Poland is also stepping forward to provide certain air defense capabilities, but I just don’t know the details.
Lt. Gen. Frederick B. Hodges. Photo: U.S. Army Europe
– POPOVA: What is this new UK-Poland-Ukraine alliance? The Russians have already managed to call it the “New UPA”(in reference to World War II era resistance fighters called Ukrainian Insurgent Army). They are, of course, categorically against it. And what exactly does it give Ukraine and to other members of this union?
– HODGES: I’m in favor of anything that brings more support for Ukraine. Whether it’s financial support, which I think is necessary, intelligence-sharing, equipment, ammunition. Certainly, UK and Poland have the capabilities that will help Ukraine.
It’s important that the UK is supportive, also because there is so much Russian money tied up in the UK in real estate. So I think this will also help to shine light on this, where the Russians have buried so much money in London real estate. And hopefully the government and UK will get serious about dirty money and exposing this.
This will be an important way to put pressure on the oligarchs that are keeping Putin in power.
– POPOVA: Thanks General. You answered quite well about the anti-tank systems, touched on the Stingers. But after all, the Stingers and Polish Perun anti-aircraft missile system/Groms, which they also began to supply, have a ceiling, in my opinion, of about 5 km. And what will happen, for example, to missiles or bombers that fly at a higher altitude?
I spoke with Lieutenant General Romanenko. He said that Ukraine lacks sufficient protection in the air. What can you say about this?
– HODGES: You have identified correctly that there is a threat from Russia for missiles and things other than just helicopters and drones.
But the systems that are necessary to knock down missiles and high-altitude fast-moving aircraft are very sophisticated systems that take months of training. So, this is not something that you can just hand over like a Stinger or a Javelin. It’s much larger and requires a lot more training.
And so the group that I am with also advocates for a longer-term strategy to provide these kinds of capabilities to Ukraine as well. But again, this is not something you’ll be able to employ next week or next month. First of all, we would have to take it from American units. I mean we only have one Patriot battalion in all of Europe.
So we would have to find where we would get this from, and then deliver and then go through all the training. This is part of the longer-term strategy that we need to be doing. I absolutely agree with that. But there’s not some anti-missile system. I don’t think anybody has it, that could just be handed over right now and Ukrainian forces would be able to employ it right now.
So, there are near- term, immediate and longer-term capabilities that are being provided. I have always been impressed with Ukrainian soldiers, how fast they learn.
This is not about whether they’re able to adapt to a sophisticated equipment. Of course, they’re able. It’s the reality of whether it’s American, Ukrainian, British, German. Whatever it takes months to learn.
How to properly use a Patriot system or similar type capabilities. You have to have radar, multiple radar. It’s not just a rocket that shoots down another rocket.
– POPOVA: How do you evaluate today’s correspondence? From the Russian side, these were ultimatums. The USA and NATO answered. Russia answered something in response. Why was it necessary, in your opinion, to present such ultimatums to Russia?
– HODGES: Well, of course, for the United States and our friends, diplomacy is the route that we prefer. But diplomacy has to be backed up by the threat of sanctions. It has to be backed up by strong military capability.
So everything for this is the state to be successful and we have to keep all our allies together. It’s not just the United States it’s everybody else. The demands from the Kremlin, not only were they outrageous and ridiculous.
I believe the Kremlin knew that we were going to say “no”. And they did this, first of all, to stake out their extreme position so as to start negotiations. But I also think, to communicate back to their own population that “look, we tried but the West refuse to negotiate, refuse to accept our very reasonable demands”.
And so that potentially becomes a pretext. I think that’s why they did it. Now I am sure that our diplomats are going to continue working in coordination with the Ukrainian diplomats and other Europeans to try and find a solution that protects and respects Ukrainian sovereignty and protects and respects European values and European borders, and hopefully can avoid a conflict.
But now I certainly would never be in favor of any diplomatic effort that betrayed Ukrainian sovereignty.
– POPOVA: Why do the Russians blame the Americans and the West in general for all this tension that has arisen now? They say that it is the West that is waging an information war against Russia and that, in fact, they are not going to attack any part of Ukraine.
At the same time, 130,000-150,000 troops are still moving along with equipment along the Ukrainian border from different sides, exercises are being held in Belarus. Nevertheless, they say that this is an information war on the part of America. Why is that?
– HODGES: I don’t believe anything that comes from the Russian ministry of foreign affairs. I mean Bild and so many other newspapers have produced maps showing arrows coming in from all different directions. Everybody that’s paying attention now. More people understand Ukrainian geography now than ever before.
We’re all interested, which is a good thing, but people are speculating. Some are very professional, some not so professional in trying to anticipate what a Russian attack would look like.
The key is that Ukraine has to continue doing everything it’s doing to be prepared for the soldiers to be ready, the population to be ready, for Ukrainian cyber networks to be protected, be prepared for sabotage, the coastline and the major seaports like Odesa should be protected.
But also, people should not panic. I think president Zelensky is correct when he says “look, part of what Russia is trying to do is to ruin our economy”. So, the threat of attack causes people to do things that they would not normally do and that damages the economy.
So, I think what I would really like to see, is continued effort by the United States and the allies, like we’re seeing now, delivering capability, being strong in diplomacy, looking for alternative sources of gas to help our European allies stay tough.
But Ukrainian leaders from the president, prime minister, ministers, members of the Rada to go see for themselves preparations on the border, go to Odesa and see what preparations are being made, go to Mariupol to see what preparations are being made, go to the border with Belarus to see what preparations are being made.
And I think that will help lower anxiety for people when they see that their leaders are personally involved on checking to make sure that things are in order.
– POPOVA: General, you were recently in Kyiv, came here and spoke together with 4 former US ambassadors, General Breedlove. What event was this a week ago?
– HODGES: This was a delegation of five former ambassadors. Several of them had been ambassador to Ukraine. You know Marie Yovanovitch, William Taylor and then General Breedlove and me, and also Melinda Haring and Benjamin Haddad from the Atlantic Council.
The Yalta European Strategy and the Victor Pinchuk foundation that was the host. The main event was on Monday afternoon, and there were over a hundred Ukrainians there, journalists.
But anyway, our purpose for going was not just that event but also to convey our support for Ukraine, the temperature of what’s going on, to have a feeling for the actual situation.
So, we had meetings with the ministers, several different members of the Rada, President Zelensky talked to Ukrainian officers. It was productive. Certainly my understanding of what’s going on is much better. And now we are able to be better advocates for Ukraine.
LTG (Ret.) Ben Hodges served in the U.S. Army for 38 years, culminating in his last assignment as commander of U.S. Army Europe (2014-2017) in Wiesbaden, Germany. During his command, he was responsible for the more than 30,000 U.S. soldiers and regularly exercised alongside NATO forces against conventional and hybrid threats.
