US General Tells What To Expect From The West-2025 Exercises
1- 5.07.2025, 22:01
- 9,264

What the West should pay attention to.
Retired U.S. Lieutenant General, former commander of U.S. forces in Europe, and veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Ben Hodges in an exclusive interview with Charter97.org commented on the threat of the Belarus-Russia Zapad-2025 exercises:
- These exercises will give us an opportunity to keep a close eye on any new capabilities or equipment. They will give us a chance to see if the Russians are practicing what they learned in Ukraine that they can use for another operation. They'll give us an opportunity to see if they really have a lot of new tanks and artillery and the equipment that they lost in Ukraine. So to me, that's a good opportunity. And now, unlike in 2021, everybody knows and pays attention to these exercises. This time we'll probably do a better job of gathering and analyzing information about the "West". The logistics, their ability to move around is something I would like to look at.
- Is there, theoretically speaking, a potential threat to the Baltic States, such as the Suvalka Corridor, as a consequence of the West 2025 exercise?"
- The Russians are already at war with us. We know, and there is no doubt, that they want to regain control of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Moldova-there is no dispute about that. They're going to be looking for an opportunity where maybe the United States is not committed to NATO or maybe other European countries or Canada, not wanting to do something.
You can imagine the possibility of some kind of attack on Latvia in the Daugavpils area, for example, where they might do something and then say, "Okay, do you really want to start a nuclear war over this?" If the Alliance doesn't react, then we have a real problem.
I don't know if they're ready to do anything else, but I believe (unless we just oversleep) that they will fail. I think the Alliance will react. Both Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are much better prepared now than they were four years ago in terms of their own defense. Plus the battle groups that are there. Plus the NATO air force. I'm sure we would have reacted immediately. Plus, if Russia were going to attack, they would have to launch a massive missile strike on all of our transportation infrastructure, airports, seaports, railroads, because they know that NATO depends on quick reinforcements. So I would never say it's impossible, but I think it's part of the preparation for possible future attacks.
- You don't expect an immediate threat in the coming months to the Baltic States? Putin won't make up his mind?"
- That's not what I said. They are already at war with us: destroying underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, assassinations, sabotage. The Russian Air Force flew through Estonian airspace to prevent the Estonians from capturing one of the ships of the shadow fleet - this kind of thing happens all the time. If we don't fight back, they will do it more and more.
I think this is more likely: increasing aggression combined with other threats and disinformation. The Kremlin is watching, trying to assess whether the U.S. is really set on this, whether the Europeans are really set on this. We have announced a 5% budget for military spending, but it will be a long time before that translates into real possibilities.