DONALD Trump must avoid signing a deal with tyrant Vladimir Putin like the one that sparked WW2 – or face another global war, a former US General has warned.
Trump has vowed to end the Ukraine war within days of getting back into office – but that will likely see Putin keeping the Ukrainian territory his cannon-fodder troops now control.
Ukrinform / PolarisUkrainian soldiers fire a howitzer at Russian troop positions in the Zaporizhzhia region on January 11[/caption]
GettyUkrainian soldiers fire at Russian soldiers near Lyptsi, Ukraine on 10 January[/caption]
GettyDonald Trump has vowed to end the Ukraine war within days of coming into office[/caption]
EPAA reckless Putin could launch another attack against Ukraine if he’s given land in peace talks, experts warned[/caption]
Ben Hodges, the former commander of the US Army Europe, told The Sun that such a move could just see Putin come back stronger in two years and invade Ukraine yet again.
But this time, it could see a reckless Putin launch missile strikes and cyber attacks against Nato territory to take out transport links that would have helped reinforce Ukraine’s defences.
General Hodges warned that this would see the conflict spiral into another global war, with Nato forces forced to defend their territory against Putin.
Former British diplomat Tim Willasey-Wilsey drew comparisons between Trump’s upcoming peace negotiations with Putin with that of Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler in 1938 in his RUSI report.
Willasey-Wilsey, a senior fellow at the think tank RUSI, told The Sun how they signed an agreement in Munich in September 1938 but six months later Hitler broke it.
And another six months later the Second World War began.
Willasey-Wilsey and General Hodges both pointed to how the same could happen in 2025 – if Putin is allowed to get away with keeping territory in a negotiated peace deal.
Hodges said the West would be “naive” to think that Putin would not break any peace deal and launch another attack on Ukraine and even Nato allies on the eastern flank.
Ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Monday, Hodges explained: “I have real concerns about negotiations with Russia, number one being that they can’t be trusted.
“They’ve never lived up to an agreement and unless there is a very strict compliance and protocol in place… we should not be naive about Russia living up to whatever the agreement is.”
Hodges and Willasey-Willsey warned that the end of any fighting in the Ukraine war wouldn’t mean Putin would stop his warmongering.
The former General said: “Nobody should be deceived that a negotiated settlement where they stop fighting but Russia keeps what they have… would mean that that’s it, that Russia will finally be happy with what they got.
“This is about their objective of destroying Ukraine as a state.”
Hodges and Willasey-Willsey warned that unless Russia is defeated, Putin will launch another attack on Ukraine as soon as they have the chance to rebuild and rearm.
The despot could use Belarus and the Ukrainian territory they seized in the war as a launching pad for another full-scale invasion.
Hodges said would launch more effective cyber attacks, sabotage attacks before sending troops over the border in a more cohesive offensive than in February 2022.
But Hodges warned that Putin wouldn’t stop there.
He warned: “We should absolutely assume that Putin will launch missile strikes against not just Ukraine, but perhaps even Nato countries to take out transportation infrastructure.”
That’s because Putin knows that the military alliance depends on rapid reinforcement in order to defend the territory against an enemy attack.
“And that means airports and seaports along Nato’s eastern flank from Finland all the way down through Poland and Romania, which are critical for rapid reinforcement, would be targeted with either kinetic strikes or with cyber attacks.”
He said trains and convoys transporting military equipment or ammunition to the frontlines from Poland to Ukraine would likely be targeted.
Willasey-Wilsey warned that Putin could also invade Moldova via the Russian-controlled enclave of Transnistria on Ukraine’s border.
He also pointed to the WW3 flashpoint of Narva – a small city on the border with Russia, which is 80 per cent Russian.
ReutersUkrainian soldiers fire towards Russian troops in Zaporizhzhia region on January 11[/caption]
GettyUkrainian soldiers fire at Russian soldiers near Lyptsi, Ukraine on 10 January[/caption]
EPAUkrainian troops patrol in camouflage in the woods in a military training exercise in Ukraine on 13 January[/caption]
ReutersPutin launches a drone attack against Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 10[/caption]
GettyCars and a tram are set on fire in a Russian missile strike on Zaporizhzhia on January 8[/caption]
Willasey-Wilsey told The Sun: “By playing hybrid warfare cleverly, Putin could claim that the local Narva population has risen up in support of Russia.
“He could go into Narva in support of the supposed persecution Russian population and then peel bits off the Baltic States.”
The former diplomat, who served for 27 years, said Putin could keep chipping away at the West and use a clever hybrid warfare tactic so as to make the West think twice about striking back.
And the tyrant is already at work in Georgia, where thousands are protesting against a “foreign influence” law adopted by the parliament.
Analysts say the law is just another sign the ex-Soviet republic is shifting away from a pro-Western course back toward Russia.
And Hodges warned that European countries in Nato still don’t have enough air and missile defence systems to defend against a Russian strike.
If Putin had made the “terrible” decision to attack Ukraine again, they will have already made the terrifying decision to attack Europe’s transportation and communications infrastructure, Hodges said.
Hodges said this will become a reality if the West doesn’t push back against the Russian beast and make Putin think twice about launching attacks against Ukraine and Europe.
Russia is already destroying underwater cables in the Baltic Sea, launching sabotage attacks against the West and threatening to launch nukes.
What was the 1938 Munich agreement?
By Rachael Bunyan, Assistant Foreign Editor
The Munich Agreement was reached in September 1938, with the agreement signed by Adolf Hiter’s Nazi Germany, Britain, France and Fascist Italy.
The agreement allowed the German annexation of the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia inhabited predominantly by ethnic Germans.
The Sudetenland was strategically important and heavily fortified, and its acquisition was a crucial step in Hitler’s expansionist ambitions.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Premier Édouard Daladier, aiming to avoid another devastating conflict following the First World War, pursued a policy of appeasement towards Hitler.
Chamberlain famously declared he had secured “peace for our time” upon returning to Britain.
But six months later, Hitler broke the agreement.
And another six months later, WW2 began when Hitler invaded Poland – with the peacekeeping efforts of Chamberlain falling flat.
The Munich Agreement is often criticised for its role in emboldening Hitler, as it demonstrated the Western powers’ reluctance to confront his aggressive policies.
Hodges said: “Russia is at war with all of Europe.
“It’s constantly about using everything on the spectrum, from threats to sabotage, to violations of airspace and international waters all the way to threats to use nuclear weapons.
“This is constant. Until you push back and make them pay the consequences for what they do, they’re going to continue doing it.”
He said by targeting the communications infrastructure and energy infrastructure – especially in the Baltic Sea – Putin is creating problems for the West to exploit our “lack of cohesion” and drive a “wedge” between the US and Europe.
Hodges explained: “That was the Soviet approach, and that’s the Russian approach”.
Yet the West still can’t believe that Russia would actually use a missile against an airport or sea port with drones – or even a massive cyber strike – to shut down the Polish port city Gdansk for instance, Hodges said.
Willasey-Wilsey agrees and says Europe and the West “aren’t ready” for another global war.
The former British diplomat told The Sun: “I don’t think we have prepared our populations right the way across Europe to the thought that this is this serious.”
And Hodges warned that on top of that, Putin’s nuclear threats won’t stop.
Two months ago, the raging warmonger gave the green light to a fresh nuke doctrine – threatening to use nuclear weapons against the West.
The deluded tyrant was left furious when US President Joe Biden finally approved use of long-range missiles by Ukraine after 1,000 days of war.
He has issued countless similar threats in the past – invoking fears of possible nuclear escalation in the West.
Hodges said the West has become “paralysed with fear” that Putin could launch nukes if we act against the tyrant.
He explained: “I think there will be a continuation of their policy of nuclear threats that if we do certain things they will use nuclear weapons.
“They’ve seen how effective that was in the past three years.
“The Biden administration and other Western governments were paralysed with fear that Russia might use a tactical nuke every time we talked about doing something.”
Hodges said the only way to end the war would be the “destruction of Russia’s economy” at the hands of the West.
He said the focus should not be on negotiations that will likely hand Ukrainian territory to Putin – but instead achieving a strategic outcome of Kyiv defeating Russia.
Hodges said president-elect Trump is in a much more powerful position than Putin, who is reeling from losing 800,000 troops on the battlefield – and for not much land.
He said Putin’s “only hope” is if the West quits and signs a deal that would ultimately “reward Russia for all of its aggression” over the years by keeping Crimea and the other 20 per cent of Ukraine that they’ve captured.
Hodges said the West’s anxiousness to end this fighting tells the Russians that we don’t have the political will to stand up to Russia.
He scathed: “We haven’t been able to get our act together enough, and we haven’t demonstrated the political will to use our advantages to help Ukraine defeat Russia.”
Hodges accused the West of failing to take the Russian threat seriously, to respond to what Putin has done against Ukraine and to recognise it’s in our interest to help Ukraine win.
“Because of those three things, the Russians could make the terrible miscalculation again that – again – the West will lose interest and not fight back,” Hodges said.
He said with any peace talks between Trump and Putin, the US president must not trust the warmonger and take his word with a pinch of salt.
Willasey-Wilsey said the West have Putin “over a barrel” with the dictator losing 800,000 troops on the battlefield.
He warned: “If we’re going to do a bargain, it’s got to be a hard bargain.”
Hodges agrees and told The Sun: “He needs to say it is in our interests that Ukraine defeats Russia and that Putin is forced to live within its own borders…
“And for Vlad to know he can’t use force to challenge the borders of Ukraine and other European countries.”
GettyA building is on fire aftermath of the Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia on January 8[/caption]
EPAUkrainian rescuers work at the site of a rocket attack on a civilian factory in Kharkiv[/caption]
APAn aerial view of Chasiv Yar shows the frontline city in ruins after heavy fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in November 2024[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
