WESTERN nations must change their attitude to Russia and crush the war machine fuelling Vladimir Putin’s aggression, an ex-army commander warns.

Nations like Iran are providing the dictator with missiles and drones to wreak havoc on Ukraine, supporting Russia’s “not so great” military forces, US General Ben Hodges revealed to The Sun.

Now retired, he told The Sun: “If you want to defeat somebody, you have to knock out whatever it is that keeps the other side in the fight.”

He warned that if the West fails to take the threat from bloodthirsty Vlad more seriously, Europe will be dealing with war “forever”.

For over three years, Russia has been inflicting suffering on Ukraine, sparking inquiries about why Moscow hasn’t exhausted its ammunition supplies.

It comes as Putin is hammering Ukraine with almost 1,000 kamikaze drones a missiles each day – overwhelming defence systems.

Dozens of innocents are being injured or killed as apartment buildings are mercilessly bombed and civilians terrorised.

When Putin sent his forces across the border in February 2022, the US military projected that, without external aid, Moscow would have been depleted of ammunition by that December.

North Korea is widely believed to have supplied Russia with missiles and shells, while Iran has bolstered Putin’s stockpile with drones and rockets.

China – Moscow’s biggest and richest ally – is suspected of equipping Vlad with “dual-use” components, which are used to make weapons.

Hodges, who was in charge of American forces in Europe, has urged the West to go after ???????????

He also believes Putin focuses on civilian areas instead of military targets because “the great Russian army and the great Russian air force and the great Russian navy are not so great”.

“I mean they have demonstrated after 11 years they cannot defeat Ukraine,” Hodges added.

“The only thing they can do is murder innocent people. So that’s what they’re doing.

“Hundreds of drones and missiles and rockets every week, which they get from Iran, North Korea and China, because they can’t even produce all that they need anymore.

“So I think we know from history that going after the population almost never works.

“It didn’t work in the Second World War, it didn’t work for us against the Vietnamese, it didn’t work for us against the Taliban.”

Putin arrogantly assumed he could sweep in and seize Kyiv in a matter of days after ordering his troops over the border into Ukraine.

But more than three years on, the red-faced despot has suffered huge losses on the battlefield.

More than 10,000 tanks, 22,000 armoured vehicles, 26,000 artillery systems, and over 700 aircraft have been destroyed, officials estimate.

And the casualty numbers are far grimmer.

Western officials have revealed that  the Russians have sustained more than 900,000 casualties, with 250,000 dead, since Putin unleashed his illegal war.

Despite this, the megalomaniac has pushed forward – continuing to throw wave after wave of troops into the meatgrinder.

Putin has found his stocks of weapons backfilled by his allies – such as receiving drones from Iran.

And meanwhile, Kim has sent tens of thousands of troops to Russia to serve alongside Vlad’s men.

A small number of Chinese troops have also allegedly been found serving in Ukraine.

But Beijing has strongly denied accusations from Ukraine that they supplying Putin with weapons.

Russia now is planning to try and unleash 1,000 drones per day on Ukraine as the war marches on – much to the fury of the US.

Hodges warned Western nations must instead focus on eliminating the threat from Axis of Evil countries – ultimately diminishing Putin’s capabilities.

The former military chief said it could see Europe grappling with endless bloodshed if not.

He said: “Europe should be more serious and try to crush them, crush that regime, use all of our economic tools and also help Ukraine be successful to defeat Russia. 

“The only way Russia ever changes is after defeat. And if they’re not defeated, then after Putin will be another Putin.

“So we’re going to be dealing with this forever unless we get serious about defending everything that we say is important.

“And we should quit being so scared of what the Russians might do. The Russians should be worrying what the hell we’re going to do.”

Hodges predicts Putin, 72, will stay at the helm of the Kremlin for at least another decade – only taking into account his health.

But at some point, the oligarchs around him – who lost enormous fortunes through war sanctions – could snap and force him out, Hodges said.

He said: “From a health standpoint, Putin’s around for another ten years.

“Usually dictators don’t have a retirement plan because there are so many people that want to kill them. So that’s why they stay in power until the very end.

“So I think we should assume he’s going to be there, if it’s just health, for at least another ten years.

“But if enough people finally got mad about how he was ruining Russia’s economic standing, that would be different.”

Putin ‘plotting attack on Europe’

by Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital)

VLADIMIR Putin could be plotting to exploit the crisis in the Middle East to launch an attack on Europe, a Ukrainian government insider has warned.

The cunning tyrant may even attempt to mimic Ukraine’s elaborate Spiderweb operation that blitzed strategic targets inside Russia.

A Ukrainian source told The Sun: “The West should be prepared that the Spiderweb operation may be reconfigured and deployed by Russia as a hybrid attack on any Nato Eastern flank nation.

“That would be the major Article 5 test that the Alliance has not experienced yet.”

Humiliated Putin was left reeling after Ukraine’s spectacular raid that – after 18 months of planning – inflicted billions of pounds worth of damage, leaving his bomber fleet in tatters.

Daring agents smuggled drones and explosives deep inside the sprawling country before unleashing a coordinated assault on June 1.

More than 100 drones were hidden in trucks across Russia before being deployed to five air bases – thousands of kilometres from the Ukrainian border.

At least 41 of Putin’s prized aircraft were wrecked in the attack – including Tu-95, Tu-22M3, and Tu-160 bombers and A-50 spy planes.

Delivering such a decisive blow has left Ukraine’s enemy scrambling.

But a Ukrainian government insider has warned it would also have left Putin’s cronies eager to learn from the clandestine operation – and look to mimic it.

The source said it could spell disaster if Vlad uses it as a blueprint to launch an attack on a European country.

READ MORE HERE