During an interview with Australian YouTuber Perun released over the weekend, Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army forces based in Europe and a long-time Ukraine supporter, said that the Ukrainian government has to consider what Germany did in the Second World War to stand a chance against Russia.
Hodges, who retired as a lieutenant-general in 2017, repeatedly quoted instances from the Second World War to contend that Kyiv can defeat Moscow on the battlefield.
“They are gonna have to increase production of ammunition and weapons in Ukraine,” Hodges declared. “Some of these things are already happening, but it is possible when you are at war to increase production, even with Russian missiles raining down on your cities.”
“I mean, think about what Germany did in 1944. Aircraft production for the Luftwaffe peaked in 1944. That’s after more than two years of steady bombing by the Royal Air Force and the US Army Air Corps bombing the hell out of German cities. But yet German aircraft production increased. So I think Ukraine can do that with some improving efficiency. Some Western companies are already there helping,” he posited.
The past 20 months has seen Russian bombings destroying most of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, prompting Kyiv to depend on the West for everything from rifles to tanks, artillery, and fighter jets. With NATO stockpiles on the decline, however, the United States and its allies have recommended boosting Kyiv’s domestic military industry.
Moscow has constantly slammed the government in Kyiv as a “Nazi regime,” alluding to the Nazi symbolisms employed by units such as “Azov” as well as official praise of Nazi collaborators such as Stepan Bandera. Ukrainian armed forces have also donned many of the insignia used by the German Wehrmacht, along with SS runes and divisional badges.
Hodges added that Ukraine needs to “improve their recruiting system in order to maximize available manpower,” saying there are “too many military-aged males and women walking around in Ukraine that should be in the military,” as well as thousands of men who escaped to the EU as refugees.
“Ukraine has got to fix their recruiting system and get these fit, able-bodied men and women into uniform,” the general told Perun. His comments came as Kyiv is exploring enlarging the military conscription to include women in order to replenish the losses incurred during its botched summer counteroffensive.
In November, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) claimed in a statement that Washington and London want Kyiv to enlarge its mobilization efforts, after the stalled summer counteroffensive, to supposedly depict Russia’s “inability to prevail” in the Ukraine conflict.
One of the suggestions mooted by Western nations allegedly included altering the draft age in Ukraine to permit Kyiv to call up teenagers and the elderly for conscription.
“The American and British curators recommend that the Ukrainian … leadership lower the [minimum] draft age to 17 years and increase [the maximum one] to 70 years, as well as call more women to arms,” the SVR said in the statement, quoting “reliable data” it obtained. This prompted comparisons with Adolf Hitler’s September 1944 order establishing the “Volkssturm” militia. These units, comprising barely trained civilians, incurred massive casualties in clashes with the Allied forces without contributing significantly to the outcome of the war.
