Russia will not be able to continue war in Ukraine next year due to economic problems - US general

It will be difficult for Russia to wage war after 2025 due to economic problems, predicts former commander of the US Army in Europe Ben Hodges. He expressed his opinion on this matter in an interview with the Kiev24 TV channel, answering the question of whether the war in Ukraine will end in 2025.
"Everything suggests that Russia cannot hold on economically after 2025. They have very serious problems in the economy. I would not say that they will not be able to continue, but it will be very, very difficult for them to do so," Hodges noted.
According to him, much depends on Western countries and the United States.
"We must demonstrate that we will not leave Ukraine until Ukraine wins this conflict," the military man emphasized.
Hodges did not undertake to make predictions regarding the actions of the new administration of US President Donald Trump to end the war in Ukraine.
"The Trump administration is very difficult in terms of understanding what they will do. They promised to do a lot of things on day one. There may be a flood of announcements, but the big announcements will require action from Congress, cooperation fromother countries. I think the administration will be more focused on domestic issues at the beginning. However, this will be an administration that we have not seen before. There will be some very different procedures, protocols. It is difficult to make any predictions," Hodges said.
With the purchasing power of the Russian ruble hitting the lowest point since March 2022, the economic toll of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine becomes glaring.
Russia's expanding spending on the war has fueled inflation, prompting Russia's Central Bank to hike its interest rate to the highest level since the early 2000s — 21 percent — to rein in consumer prices.
Inflation remained high regardless of the rate hike, speeding up to over 1 percent in the first three weeks of November and pushing the year-to-year numbers to over 8 percent.
In the wake of the economic challenges the countryhas faced over the past year, the U.S. government's Nov. 21 decision to impose new sanctions on dozens of Russian banks has proven hard for the country's economy to swallow.
"Russia is currently facing an impossible economic conundrum because of the rapid increase in military expenditures and the Western sanctions," Anders Aslund, a Swedish economist specializing in post-Soviet countries