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maintain their support? well, my guest is general ben hodges, former commander of the us army in europe. could this winter be russia s friend? i m going to start with something you said just last month. you said total restoration of all of ukraine s sovereign territory, including crimea, is inevitable. now, a few weeks on, do you still believe that? even more so. i think ukrainians have achieved irreversible momentum. the russians are losing in every facet of this war. so that s why they re resorting to things like going after energy infrastructure, doing what they can, exactly as you said in the lead in, to stretch this out in hopes that the west would lose the will to continue supporting ukraine. but it s not a small thing, is it? the way the russians are hitting civilian infrastructure, they are, as we speak, cutting power and heat to millions of people across ukraine. and it seems, despite the best efforts of ukrainian air defences, they can continue to do it. it su ....
nation in three years. and the premier li keqiang. now on bbc news hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. winter is coming to europe, and vladimir putin is hoping the battle lines in his war on ukraine will be frozen, buying him time to reinforce at the front, while exposing ukrainians and all of europe to the reality of an energy crisis. the ukrainian armed forces have made gains in recent months, but can they go further, and will kyiv s backers in the us and europe maintain their support? well, my guest is general ben hodges, former commander of the us army in europe. could this winter be russia s friend? thanks, steve. even more so. i think ukrainians have achieved irreversible momentum. the russians are losing in every facet of this war. so that s why they re resorting to things like going after energy infrastructure, doing what they can, exactly as you said in the lead in, to stretch this out in hopes that the west would lose the will to continue supp ....
the ukrainian armed forces have made gains in recent months, but can they go further and will kyiv s backers in the us and europe maintain their support? well, my guest is general ben hodges, former commander of the us army in europe. could this winter be russia s friend? i m going to start with something you said just last month. you said total restoration of all of ukraine s sovereign territory, including crimea, is inevitable. now, a few weeks on, do you still believe that? even more so. i think ukrainians have achieved irreversible momentum. the russians are losing in every facet of this war. so that s why they re resorting to things like going after energy infrastructure, doing what they can, exactly as you said in the lead in, to stretch this out in hopes that the west would lose the will to continue supporting ukraine. but it s not a small thing, is it? the way the russians are hitting civilian infrastructure, they are, as we speak, cutting power and heat to mill ....
in tigray for a permanent cessation of hostilities. the two year conflict has left hundreds of thousands dead, almost five million displaced, and a population on the brink of starvation. now on bbc news, it s time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. winter is coming to europe and vladimir putin is hoping the battle lines in his war on ukraine will be frozen, buying him time to reinforce at the front while exposing ukrainians and all of europe to the reality of an energy crisis. the ukrainian armed forces have made gains in recent months, but can they go further and will kyiv s backers in the us and europe maintain their support? well, my guest is general ben hodges, former commander of the us army in europe. could this winter be russia s friend? i m going to start with something you said just last month. you said total restoration of all of ukraine s sovereign territory, including crimea, is inevitable. now, a few weeks on, do you still believe that? ....
On the eastern flank of nato. so maybe intelligence isn t so great, and it can work both ways, both in overestimation, but now maybe an underestimation. sure. which is why you have to constantly revisit it and constantly challenge the assumptions as i ve reflected on, how could i have been so wrong about russian capabilities? you know, ifailed to fail to appreciate the depth of corruption and the effect the corruption would have on readiness and quality of parts, even though they had gone through this massive modernisation effort. i also failed to appreciate the lack of actual operational experience they had. i mean, i was thinking georgia, syria, africa, crimea, but actually it was only about 5% of the military that actually had experience. and then, of course, they don t exercise the way that we do, where you train to the point of failure and do all those things. all of that was exposed, beginning in february. now it s existential for putin. i think most people would agree putin ....