General Ben Hodges has warned that the European continent is “slowly waking to the realisation” that it cannot count on Washington as a fair partner.
“The United States really sees Europe as inconsequential except maybe for some business purposes,” Hodges told Euronews on Europe Today programme.
In his view, the US administration’s approach to the conflict was “doomed from the start” because they treated the war like “a massive real estate deal”.
Hodges pointed to recent revelations involving Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, as evidence that Washington’s primary interest is “business with Russia after this is all concluded”.
“If it goes the way that Mr Witkoff and Jared Kushner wanted to go with the Russians, (it) is going to be a massive problem for Europe”, he said, warning of millions of more refugees if Ukraine is forced into an unsatisfactory deal.
This shift in priorities was laid bare this week as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to skip a key NATO meeting in Brussels.
“It is unusual but that’s part of the problem,” Hodges noted, adding that under the current administration’s list of priorities, “Europe is number four” behind the western hemisphere, the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East.
Despite the grim outlook, the general insisted that the situation is not hopeless. He rejected the premise that Ukraine is losing, noting that after 11 years of war, Russia occupies only 20% of the country and parts of its economy are “in deep trouble”.
According to Hodges, “Ukraine and Europe together” have the industry, wealth and population to stop Russia.
“There’s no reason that Europe, including Ukraine, cannot stop Russia,” he said. “What they lack is the self-confidence and the political will.”
Video editor • Lucy Davalou