Retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, warned that the Europeans need to step up and start acting against Russia—a key test of that being if they can unlock the frozen Russian assets under their control and use them to aid Ukraine.
Hodges, speaking to Polish broadcaster TVP World, said it is “very frustrating that the United States is not seen as consistently being a leader” within NATO, but that European allies should be doing much more.
“Even without the United States, the combined economies and militaries and industry and wealth and populations of all the remaining members of the alliance dwarfs Russia. And so I think this is a time for European members of the alliance to rediscover their self-confidence,” Hodges said.
“Unfortunately, the ones who have been played as fools are the U.S. government and some other European countries who kept hoping that the United States was actually going to step in and use the enormous advantage of leverage that President Trump has over the Russians.
“Instead, he hasn’t and unfortunately I don’t think he will. So now is the time for Europeans to open their eyes and recognize that they are going to have to make sure that Ukraine can continue to resist Russia, continue to put pressure on Russia’s economy, which is in big trouble.”
He warned: “A test will be whether or not they find a way to unlock the frozen Russian assets, to get that done. If they can’t do that, then I think neither Putin or Trump will ever think of Europe as being consequential.”
Hodges also dismissed the “nonsense” threats of war from Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.
“This is what he has been doing from the beginning, constant threats about nuclear weapons, about we’re ready for war. This is nonsense,” Hodges said.
“Eleven years they have not been able to defeat Ukraine. They still have only been able to gain control of about 20 percent of Ukraine. After 11 years, with every advantage, they still have not achieved air superiority. The Black Sea fleet has pretty much been eliminated as a serious participant in this war.
“So Russia still is a threat, obviously. But I think that…if European countries acted together with all of their combined assets and advantages, and rediscovered their own
self-confidence, then they should quit worrying about what Russia might do and instead Russia should be very worried about provoking Europe.
“It’s going to take some leaders to actually step up and do things to inflict consequences on the Kremlin. Right now, the Kremlin is pretty sure that we’re only going to talk about doing things.”