DW spoke with the former commander of the US Army in Europe, Ben Hodges, who says long-range precision weapons will enable Ukraine degrade Russia's manpower advantage. The Biden administration's permission for the firing of long-range missiles into Russia is a major step by an ally of Ukraine that may inspire similar decisions by the United Kingdom and France.
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00:00And we're joined now by retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the former
00:04commander of the U.S. Army in Europe. General Hodges, it's a pleasure to have you with us,
00:09as always. Can I start by asking you, what battlefield difference will the ATACMS,
00:16the tactical ballistic missiles, make?
00:20One, this will enable Ukraine to strike Russian and North Korean headquarters,
00:34logistics, and artillery that will help disrupt Russian preparations for their attack,
00:40their counterattack against the Ukrainian bridgehead in Kursk. That'll be the immediate
00:46tactical benefit, which will undermine the Russian advantage en masse.
00:52The second difference it'll make, of course, and you've alluded to it in the run-up to this piece,
00:57is that it opens the door for UK and France to allow storm shadow and scalp and increases
01:04pressure on Germany to reconsider its very restrictive policy about Taurus.
01:11The third impact, of course, strategically, is that this tells the Russians that the United
01:16States, we are not turning our back on Ukraine and that their hope that we would just quit
01:21is going to fail. So, you see the ATACMS
01:25essentially effectively countering Russia's recent battlefield advances?
01:32Well, long-range precision is a capability that can render or that can degrade the only Russian
01:41advantage, which is mass. So, when you have large numbers of troops, the way the Russians and the
01:47North Koreans do, they have to have headquarters, they have to have artillery and rocket fire to
01:53enable their advance, and then obviously you need the logistics, the ammunition. So,
01:57with long-range precision, you can destroy all three of those, which significantly degrades
02:04Russia's ability to continue its meat grinder tactics. So, there's no one weapon that changes
02:12everything, but this is an important capability that Ukraine has long needed.
02:17And looking at things from the Ukrainian side, how do you think Ukraine will
02:21use these missiles specifically? What will Kiev's strategy be here?
02:26Well, of course, even though the Biden administration has finally agreed to
02:31allowing Ukraine to use these, they still have restrictions. They have restricted it to the
02:37Kursk bridgehead area. I'm sure the Ukrainians would love to be able to go after Russian airfields
02:43and other places from which the Russians are launching these endless attacks against
02:50attacks against innocent Ukrainian civilians and the Ukrainian power grid,
02:55but at least if they are restricted to use in the vicinity of the Kursk bridgehead,
03:01they can still disrupt Russian and North Korean preparations for their counterattack against the
03:07Ukrainians in Kursk. This, by the way, will also send the message to Pyongyang that if you want
03:13to send troops over here to help Russia, they're going to start seeing the numbers of casualties
03:18amongst North Korean troops that the Russians have been experiencing.
03:23You just alluded to the fact that the US has waited a long time until it allowed Ukraine
03:30this capability. So let's talk about the timing. Why is this happening now?
03:37Of course, I don't know exactly why now. The administration, which has done so many good
03:43things for Ukraine, has failed, unfortunately, in the critical task of clearly identifying
03:49that they want Ukraine to actually win. And if you don't have a clearly identified strategic
03:54objective, then you end up with a lot of bad policy, which is what has happened in the case
04:00of the Biden administration. I think this is a result of a continued excessive fear that Russia
04:08might somehow escalate to use a nuclear weapon. And I think there's almost zero chance that Russia
04:14uses a nuclear weapon because there's no benefit for Russia to actually use or to follow through
04:21on their threats. Now, why did it just happen? I think this has been something under consideration
04:28for a long time. Perhaps this was done in response to the recent surge in Russian air
04:35attacks against Ukrainian cities. Whatever the reason, this is a gift from President Biden to
04:43President Trump because the policy will already be in effect. And then the Trump administration
04:48can choose to leave it in place or not, which is much better than hoping that the Trump administration
04:54might change the policy. You just mentioned the issue of nuclear weapons. You're saying that you
05:03don't see that as a huge risk. But let's talk about the risks. How risky is it for Ukraine
05:10to strike deep into Russian territory with these weapons?
05:16Well, again, the administration has continued to put restrictions on Ukraine so Ukraine cannot
05:23use them just anywhere. But I mean, the Ukrainians have been hitting Russian oil and gas infrastructure.
05:30They've even hit the airport outside of Moscow. So I see these Russian threats as just that,
05:37threats. The fact that they would come out and say that this is a step closer to World War III,
05:43that's information targeting US administration and also Berlin, trying to scare us from doing
05:52what needs to be done to help Ukraine. The Russians know that they get zero benefit.
05:57There are zero upsides for them if they use a nuclear weapon. China has said don't use it.
06:03India has said don't use it. Germany has said don't use it. The Biden administration has promised
06:09that there would be catastrophic consequences if they use a nuclear weapon. So I think there's
06:14nothing good for the Russians if they use it and they see that the constant threats of using it
06:20has actually worked for them. So the Ukrainians, whatever weapon systems they have,
06:27they've got to be able to defend themselves. And that means going after the places from which
06:33air and missile attacks are being launched that kill innocent Ukrainian civilians every day.
06:38And also going after the Russian oil and gas infrastructure,
06:42which is what pays for Russia's continued aggression against Ukraine.
06:47Ben Hodges, retired US Army Lieutenant General,
06:50thank you so much for your time and for your insights today. We appreciate it.
06:56Thanks for the privilege.