in Ukraine's luhansk region,
new images show an aftermath of
explosion at a Russian --
the Wagner group, which has
been accused of war crimes has,
been using a hotel as its base
in Russia occupied territory.
The hotel now a crater and
blaming, Russia blaming Ukraine
for the blast.
Dramatic new images also coming
out of melitopol, Ukraine is
fighting to gain back that city
back from Russia which it
captured back in March.
Ukrainian forces have launched
missiles in that area, former
officials there say Russia turn
the city into one giant
military base.
Its troops taking over homes
and schools and joining me now
to talk about it is a former
commanding general of our Al
U.S. Forces in --
Ben hodges, general.
Thank you so much for being
with us.
We appreciate.
It what is your reaction to
Ukraine launching this missile
attack, on this Russian
occupied city, and also the
news that there has been a
explosion at the headquarters
of the Wagner group.
The Russian state controlled
mercenary group, notorious
group.
Is this the start of a new
counteroffensive, what do you
think?
>> Jim, thanks for the
privilege.
First of all, the Russians must
be very concerned that the
Ukrainians continue to
demonstrate creativity and
innovative ways with technology
to reach further and further to
hit Russian targets.
So, the Ukrainians are all
obviously not sitting around
for the United States to
provide everything that is
needed.
That is number one.
Number two, I don't know that
this is the start of a new
counteroffensive, I think
actually we're in the phase of
what we would call conditions
setting.
Where the Ukrainian general
staff is going to continue to
go after logistics and continue
to go after commanding control,
so that in another month or two
months, they will be able to
launch a successful next phase
of their counteroffensive.
So melitopol sits right on one
of the only two land lines of
communication that go into
crimea.
So hitting melitopol will
disrupt the disruption --
to reinforce crimea.
>> And why go after the Wagner
group?
>> Well, the Wagner group of
course has a certain sort of
notorious cachet already.
They are the ones that are
continuing to pound away at
Ukrainian defenses around
bakhmut, and so I think there
is not only a aberrational --
to knock out the headquarters
of waukegan or if that is what
they're trying to do, but also
a symbolic way to hit back
against forces that have caused
a lot of damage and
particularly are brutal.
So just to step back from --
if this is all about Ukrainian
general staff going after
headquarters and going after
logistics which I think our
pre-curses, what we call
setting the conditions for the
decisive phase of campaign
which will be the liberation of
crimea.
>> Let me ask you this, for the
second time this week Larry
Putin floated the possibility
that Russia may formally change
its military doctorate of not
being the first to use a
nuclear weapon during a
conflict.
Do you think that is just a
bluff?
He raised the prospect or of
the Ukrainians of being able to
retake crimea, might that be a
tipping point for he Putin that
he just gets so desperate he
tries to do something once like?
That >> Of course, I wouldn't
take it seriously anytime the
Russians talk about nuclear
rapunzel, they have thousands
of them, secretary Austin
recently said it looks like
they are trying to expand their
inventory of nuclear weapons.
But I also think it is
extremely unlikely that they
would actually use them.
I think the Russian general
staff and the Kremlin
absolutely believe president
Biden when he said there will
be catastrophic consequences.
So I think there is no
battlefield advantage for
Russia to use it, and the price
that they would pay is I think
too much for them.
However, by bringing things up
like this it gets it back into
our mind, we have actually gone
several weeks without too much
reporting about the possibility
of a nuclear strike.
So this gets it back in
people's minds as we enter this
tough cold winter.
And again, as you know, the
Russian objective is to drag
this out as long as they can in
hopes they will use lose the
will to continue supporting
Ukraine.
I think that is what this is
about.
>> Are there additional steps
the Biden administration should
be considering at this point to
turn the tide against Russia?
The Ukrainians really seem to
get the Russians back on their
heels.
Would you advise the Biden
administration to push this
little harder to knock the
Russians all the way on their
backs?
Absolutely.
I think that the administration,
which has done a very good job
on so many aspects of this
entire conflict, we still are
deterring ourselves for an
overestimation of what Russia
might do to escalate.
I actually think Russians don't
have anything else with which
they could escalate other than
to continue threatening nuclear
conflict.
Now, this is not happening in a
vacuum.
And I wouldn't claim to know
everything the conversations
with China for example, that
may be causing us to limit what
we are doing, but Ukraine has
achieved irreversible momentum.
There is no going.
Back I believe that they are
going to liberate crimea by the
end of next summer.
This could happen a lot faster
if the administration and other
allies would provide the
additional things that Ukraine
needs, and also it would save a
lot more Ukrainian lives if we
could stop the bombing of so
many Ukrainian cities.
Sooner.
>> All right.
Ben hodges, we will catch up
with you later we will see
about that prediction of years