Former US general: "Ukraine is going to win this" | DW News

The Pentagon has rejected an offer from the Polish government to transfer fighter jets to the United States for use in Ukraine. Pentagon Press Secretary, John Kirby, says the plan is not "tenable."

Poland wanted to transfer its Soviet-era MiG-29s to the US, for delivery to the Ukrainian Air Force. The Polish offer was in response to Ukraine's appeal for fighter planes that its pilots are trained to fly. But the US feared the deal could be viewed by Russia as a hostile move.

DW spoke with Ben Hodges, retired US Army officer and the former commander of US forces in Europe, about the refusal of the US to act as an intermediary for the the MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine.

Hodges said he disagred with the Pentagon's decision but added that he did not think "that the book is closed on this."

"I'm willing to bet that we're going to eventually get there," he said.
The retired lieutenant general said it was worth considering the option of implementing a no-fly zone, but also other options to help the Ukrainians defend against strikes — which are mostly not coming from Russian planes — including "more intelligence, longer ranges systems where Ukrainians could destroy the source of the damage."

"We cannot repeat what we did at Srebrenica in 1995, where European soldiers under a UN mandate stood outside the city, while 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were murdered by Republika Syrpska forces," Hodges told DW.

The former US army officer believes that "Ukraine is going to win this."
"Russia is not going to get into Kyiv, that Russia has made the decision to transition to attrition warfare and to do that, you have to have time, you have to have unlimited ammunition and you have to have unlimited manpower. And Russia has none of those three," he said.


Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/deutschewelleenglish?sub_confirmation=1

For more news go to: http://www.dw.com/en/
Follow DW on social media:
►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deutschewellenews/
►Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwnews
►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwnews
Für Videos in deutscher Sprache besuchen Sie: https://www.youtube.com/dwdeutsch

#Russia #Ukraine #NATO

ukraine russia nato ben hodges wesley clark ukraine invasion ukraine war invasion of ukraine ukraine news war in ukraine figher jets