HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — All eyes are on Ukraine, and the Russian invasion. FOX54 News hears from a retired Army veteran who was stationed in Ukraine.
Keneisha Deas got some insight with former EUCOM J5 MIL-TO-MIL, PfP Deputy Director, Ret. LTC Micah Wells.
“I used to go to Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, and Republic of Georgia were my countries,” said Wells.
“We used to meet with their ministers of defense and then chief of staff in order to assess militarily where they were and then try to fill their gaps to help them to one day become a member of NATO.”
Wells was part of a Partnership for Peace program initiated by NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that was launched during the Clinton administration. However, Wells says Ukraine was lacking one thing to sustain its military.
“Good people, as free to core, but without money to move tanks and to fly and to practice in the jets, there’s just no way they were going to be able to sustain this without a day,” said Wells.
“Russia was going to take them in five minutes because they just don’t have money. They just don’t have money to train to equip the military,” added Wells.
Wells said the Russian takeover wasn’t a military move that happened overnight.
“Four, five years ago - they took over Crimea, and the port of the Southern part of Ukraine, and really the world did nothing, and if they were really going to be aggressive to send the message, I think the U.N., EU, NATO, should have stopped them at that point in time,” said Wells.
As far as why Russia would conquer Ukraine:
“I don’t know what’s going on with the economy of Russia, but sometimes you need a good war and patriotism to get you distracted from what’s going on at home.”
Wells says he’s shocked by Putin’s move, and saw the threat of taking over Ukraine as a bluff- however, “I’m amazed. I think it’s a lose, lose, lose situation short-term, long-term, that there’s no way he could come out as the winner,” said Wells.
“Militarily I believe he could take Ukraine, but can he sustain it for the length of time to be able to there, etc, etc, I think that may be a little bit more difficult,” said he added.
Wells said the crisis in Ukraine from Russia does impact all of us, from gas to international trade. “We live in a global village. I consider myself, I carry an American passport, and consider myself a global citizen, and every American, whether they realize that or not, they are a global citizen.”
Wells believes the actions carried out by Russia require more than issuing sanctions but cutting them off economically. “I think if they cut them off and people start to suffer internally and the will of the people, start saying listen we’re suffering here, you’ve got to give Ukraine back etc., etc., maybe that’s going to happen. Or option 2, which I don’t think anyone in the world wants, a ‘mano a mano’ armed conflict which nobody wins,” said Wells.
Although Wells doesn’t believe an armed conflict will happen involving the U.S. - some of the immediate impacts we could see is the spike in gas prices.
Russia is a major oil supplier.
“But guess what, a month ago I was complaining about paying $2.69 a gallon, now I’ll be happy if I can pay $3.33, and hopefully it won’t go up!”
Wells says international trade from Europe impacts us here too.
“This just doesn’t affect Ukraine, it affects Europe. And we do a lot of trading with Europe, and I can tell you this, the angst in Europe is high because they remember, and they are afraid. Even our newly assessed NATO members, who were former WARSAW Pact countries, that’s why they joined NATO, because they did not want to be a second-class citizen in their own country by being a member of the former Soviet veil,” said Wells.
Wells believes although Russia has Ukraine captive now, sustaining control may be a little bit more difficult over time.