Refusing to defend Ukraine will deprive the US of its best allies, – General Hodges

He called Trump’s refusal to protect Ukraine a “catastrophic mistake.”

Former US Supreme Allied Commander in Europe Ben Hodges sharply criticized US President Donald Trump’s decision not to demand a ceasefire in Ukraine from the Kremlin and to abandon sanctions pressure, calling it a “catastrophic mistake.”

According to BILD , Hodges believes that such a position would “seriously undermine the credibility of the American president” and would be “humiliating for the United States.” He also added that it would effectively be “a betrayal of America’s best allies.”

“America cannot do it alone, we need allies, and the best of them are in Europe, Canada and Australia. If the United States says that this is only a European problem, in my opinion, it would be a betrayal of our allies who have been by our side for decades,” Hodges noted.

He added that if the US withdraws from the negotiation process and stops helping Ukraine, Europe will have to take the lead. According to him, Germany, as the largest and strongest economy in Europe, should take the lead.

“And I think other European countries are waiting to see if Germany can set a good example,” Hodges added.

He also emphasized that Russia’s goals remain unchanged – to destroy Ukraine as a state and destroy NATO.

“If Russia attacks an alliance member country and we don’t respond appropriately, it could be the end of the entire alliance,” the general warned.

Trump’s position on the war in Ukraine

As a reminder, after a conversation with Putin on May 19, Trump said that the United States should not have intervened in the Russian-Ukrainian war. According to him, this is a European problem, and the United States “got involved in something that it should not have been involved in.”

The WSJ also wrote that the US president told the Europeans that the Russian dictator is not ready to end the war because he considers himself a winner in less than five minutes.

(C)UNIAN 2025