Russian leadership's hatred for each other, soldiers' indifference will enable Ukraine to win - General Hodges

General Ben Hodges, former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe.

We understand how difficult the situation on our frontlines is. I would ask you to give an objective assessment of how our actions are unfolding. In particular, we are talking about attempts to conduct combat testing of Russian defense lines.

First of all, Ukraine has now taken the road that will lead to the liberation of Crimea and the ejection of Russian forces from Ukraine.

So this is an important step by Ukraine to begin this offensive, but I don't think that the main attack has begun, I think Ukrainian forces are continuing to put pressure on Russian defenses, looking for vulnerabilities, confusing the Russians as to where the main attack will be. And of course, there will be some losses. I mean this will be very difficult for the next few days, but I anticipate that in the next few weeks we will see much more success and momentum by Ukrainian forces.

The Russians are hysterical, Putin is hysterical as well. They don't know what to expect, and feel powerless.

First of all, most of the Russian soldiers do not want to be there. Secondly, Russian media and the military bloggers are being confronted with the truth after being lied to for the past year. Now they're seeing that Ukrainian forces are strong and prepared and have real capability. It also helps Ukraine that the leadership on the Russian side hates each other. Kadirov, Prigozhin, Shoigu, they all hate each other and that hatred trickles down to the colonels and generals and people under them as well. So this means that Russia's defense will lack some cohesion if Ukraine can keep the pressure on them.

What do you think are the weakest points in Russian defense and military strategy during the current summer campaign?

It's important to always remember, as we say in the army, the first reports are never as good or as bad as they sound. I mean commanders are trying to fight. There's a very tough fight. So the information that we have as much as we would like to know more, we don't know exactly what's happening out there. We should all be very patient with the Ukrainian General Staff and Ukrainian soldiers. They're doing a terrific job, but it's going to be a few more days before we can learn more. Now I believe that some of the tactical weaknesses on the Russian side. I look at all the videos of these trenches and bunkers and minefields and everything. Those are tough, but it's the soldiers in those trenches that really make the difference. So I'm waiting to see if the Russian soldiers are better in the defense then they were in the attack that remains to be seen.

At the higher level the Ukrainian General Staff has done a very good job of going after Russian logistics, Russian headquarters, making it difficult for Russian forces to make decisions to maneuver to respond. And again this lack of cohesion at the top level of Russian leadership I think is a vulnerability that Ukrainian general staff will explore.

The reason why I mentioned the hysteria of the Russians is that they do not know, cannot predict how our military will behave, and they do not understand the strategic plan of our command. A few days ago, our Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi and the Joint Chief of Staff Chair Mark Milley had a conversation. What in your opinion did Mr. Milley and Mr. Zaluzhnyi discuss?

Of course, I don't know exactly what they discussed but I would imagine that General Zaluzhnyi gave an assessment to General Milley of how the offensive is going so far, and what they're seeing. And I would imagine that he would have highlighted to General Millie to make clear what Ukraine's needs in the coming months, and I would imagine that General Millie made it clear that he would continue to do everything he can to ensure the United States and the other countries who support Ukraine will continue to do so.

So these were two professional soldiers with a lot of respect for each other talking about the challenges. But also I imagine it was encouraging for both of them.

How do you assess the overall performance of American and European military equipment on the battlefield? In particular, in terms of Leopard-2 tanks.

The Leopard tank is an exceptionally good tank. But as with everything, it depends on the quality of the soldiers inside the tank, and how well the commanders employ the tanks in the fight. Unsurprisingly, some were damaged in the opening days but I noticed how quickly Ukrainians were able to recover that tank, bring it back out of the fight so that it can be repaired. This is an important skill that Ukraine has already shown. So I think we'll see more and more when the main attack actually begins. We're going to see larger numbers of Leopards as well as other tanks that will be put into the fight, and the advantage that Ukrainian forces have with something like a Leopard will become very apparent.

We understand that there may be several scenarios for a major summer campaign. How large will the fighting be and how actively is Russia going to deploy resources? Do you think they have the appropriate resources, including equipment, artillery, and trained troops?

I would imagine that the Ukrainian General Staff will put pressure on Russia in several different places. Of course, I don't know the Ukrainian General Staff's plan and I should not know the plan. The Ukrainian General Staff has been very disciplined and does an excellent job of protecting information. What I'm telling you is my own assessment of what I'm guessing is happening. To my mind, one of the primary objectives is to reach the road that connects Crimea all the way to Russia.

I'm talking about between Mariupol, Melitopol somewhere and that area there what people refer to it as the land bridge.

I would imagine that Ukraine would like to be able to sever or cut that road to begin the isolation of Crimea. And then to bring up more long-range weapons that can begin to strike Sevastopol, Saky, Dzhankoy - these places in Crimea so that Crimea becomes untenable for Russian forces, so they can't just sit there. This is an important part of the campaign that's coming probably in the next two months. The UK providing Storm Shadow, for example, is an excellent contribution because it already gives Ukraine the ability to begin to hit targets much further away. I wish that the Biden's Administration would make a decision to provide ATACMS or Gray Eagle drones or other long-range systems that would allow Ukraine to strike even deeper. But I think until then Ukrainian forces will continue to attempt to isolate Crimea. And also I anticipate that one of their efforts of course will be to secure the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia before Russia can create another catastrophe. 

We really need long-range missile systems. Of course, we are talking about increasing the number of Storm Shadow and ATACMS. There is hysteria in the Kremlin, and a member of the Russian Security Council and former President Medvedev made an extremely serious threat that we have been talking about for a long time. In particular, he mentioned the risk of destroying transatlantic cables. This means that the Russians may be preparing a provocation in the Arctic.

I would expect that Russia may attempt to do that. They certainly have been working on the capability for years to attack undersea infrastructure. But of course though we are aware of that and I would expect that all the right organizations and agencies are doing what they should to protect underwater infrastructure. But Medvedev has demonstrated that he's not a real strategic genius here over the past year, and he seems to have spent a lot of time threatening about what he's going to do. He should invest a little bit more time and take care of his own soldiers and his own country rather than worrying about destroying infrastructure or Western cities.

NATO Summit in Vilnius is coming up, and we are hearing more and more about concrete security guarantees for Ukraine, not just paper ones.

The best security guarantee everybody knows is membership in NATO and I hope that this will happen soon. I do expect that at the Vilnius Summit there will be concrete steps announced that will make it clear that Ukraine's future is with NATO, is inside NATO. Even if they don't call it a membership action plan, I think we will hear several concrete steps that will make it clear. I will be disappointed and

I think the Vilnius Summit will be unsuccessful if that does not happen. And of course everybody, the leadership in NATO understands that.

In the meanwhile, the United States in particular but also some other countries will do things to help Ukraine be able to protect itself after it has defeated Russia. And after Russia has been ejected from Ukraine. I would anticipate the United States, Poland, UK, maybe other countries Germany, France and others will continue to help Ukraine develop or build up its air and missile defense against the various threats that will still come from Russia. The key is that Ukraine has to have Crimea. If Russia is allowed to remain in Crimea, they will continue to be able to launch attacks against Ukraine. They'll wait one or two years for the West to lose interest and then they'll be back. And everybody in Kyiv knows that and the most serious strategic thinkers understand that.

It will also be very difficult for Ukraine to rebuild its economy as long as Russia occupies Crimea because it can block access to Odesa, Mykolaiv and obviously into the Azov Sea. So an essential part of Ukraine's security is going to be getting Russia out of Crimea.

Russians have blown up the Kakhovka dam, making it the largest man-made disaster on the European continent after World War II. It was a clear hint of their readiness to create a similar catastrophe at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. I would like to believe that there will be some adequate response to prevent Russians from committing another crime, this time the nuclear one.

Russia has made it clear that they do not care how many innocent people are killed or what damage they do to the environment. I mean they treat their own people and their own country like this. So it's not a surprise that they would do something like destruction of the Kakhovka dam or that they might do something even worse. It's important for not only the West but also for China and India to make it clear to the Kremlin that this is unacceptable, that this environmental terrorism, this ecocide is unacceptable. And to do anything worse, such as to create a catastrophe at the nuclear power plant that is unacceptable. And so I would imagine that the West is communicating with Beijing and New Delhi, they have got to put pressure on the Kremlin as well that this will be unacceptable. 

We could also start making sure that all the people that are around Putin that they too will be found guilty or held liable in the international criminal court or by some other Tribunal for all of these war crimes. They need to start feeling and understanding that they will be liable as well.