American General has criticized NATO because of the Crimea
Ben Hodges
ODESSA-KIEV. March 2. UNN. Visits by commercial courts of the countries-members of NATO to ports in occupied Crimea are incredible. This was stated by the former commander of the US army in Europe (2014-2017), Lieutenant-General Ben Hodges during the first international conference “Odessa debate. The unification of Ukraine, black sea region and transatlantic partners” in Odessa, the correspondent of UNN.
“The West needs to regain the initiative. I tired to respond to Russia all the time. We must take the initiative and make them react to our action, in order to repel their aggression and their continued expansion,” said Hodges.
According to him, former U.S. Secretary of state called it a “horizontal escalation” – to force Russia to “look in all directions, not to allow them to choose where everything will happen.”
“This means that we must throw away everything that even remotely looks as if we, the West, acknowledged the Russian sovereignty over Crimea. The fact that commercial vessels of NATO countries such as Turkey, go to Sevastopol, to me, is incredible. How can we, if Ukraine said that these ports are closed, the NATO countries or other States to come into these ports as if it was a normal thing,” – said Lieutenant General.
Earlier, Ben Hodges stated that the West should not let Russia lay claim to the waters around the Crimea.