"The Pressure On Putin Will Increase."
1- 6.07.2025, 17:40
- 4,596
US General Ben Hodges told how oligarchs can influence the head of the Kremlin.
Retired American lieutenant general, former commander of US forces in Europe, veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Ben Hodges believes that the return of Ukraine to the 1991 borders should be a strategic goal of the West.
The U.S. officer said this in a exclusive interview with the website Charter97.org.
- In the last week alone, the Russian army has sent some 114 ballistic missiles, 1,270 drones and 100,000 heavy planning bombs toward Ukraine. What can and should the West do about these attacks, which affect mostly civilians?"
- Three things. Number one, we should make it clear that our strategic goal is the victory of Ukraine over Russia, that that is our policy, and that we are providing Ukraine with everything it needs to defeat Russia, which means pushing Russia back to the 1991 borders - that should be our policy.
Number two, help suspend Russian air and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities. We do it for Israel, we do it in the Red Sea against the Hussites. Why aren't we doing it for Ukraine? We don't need to shoot down Russian planes (they don't even enter Ukrainian airspace), but there are things we could do by giving Ukraine the opportunity to "kill the archery". Better to kill the archer than to try to intercept all the arrows. So help Ukraine develop the ability to go where the arrow is.
The third thing we should do is use all of our economic leverage against Russia, stop oil exports, use frozen Russian assets to pay for all of this, and help Ukraine develop the ability to hit Russian oil and gas infrastructure inside Russia. Because without oil export revenues, Russia would not be able to continue this war.
- Putin, as you clearly stated, doesn't care about the human cost on the Russian side, but what about the Russian population, the Russian elites? We're talking about at least a million Russian casualties. It's also clear that the losses on the Russian side are much higher than on the Ukrainian side. Nobody on the Russian side cares about the losses?"
- I think they do care, that's why you don't see too many soldiers recruited from Moscow or St. Petersburg. Most of the people who go into the army come from other regions. Obviously they know that it will have a negative impact on the population if there are so many casualties and funerals in Moscow and St. Petersburg. So they do care, but not when most of the casualties are in regions outside the two densely populated centers.
I don't understand the Russian population, why there hasn't been more resistance. Perhaps it's not their style. I think they have such a strong internal security apparatus that anyone who could organize protests is already dead or in jail.
- They don't care about human lives, but speaking of resources, how long can the Russian economy sustain this level of loss of manpower and this intensity of air attacks on Ukraine?"
- I don't know. The chairman of the Central Bank of Russia has said that they are heading for a recession. But I don't know what that means: another year, two months, or five years. I think they are in trouble, and at some point it will make itself felt.
At some point, when the oligarchs start feeling the pain, when they start losing, then I think the pressure on Putin will increase. Although many of them are still making money, what they had before Russia invaded Ukraine has been destroyed. They don't have apartments in London's Belgravia or Mayfair, all the other places where Russians put their money - that's been destroyed.
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