MOSCOW, August 14. /TASS/. Europe is unable to withstand the Ukrainian conflict without the US; it has no capacity to support Ukraine without the country's resources, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and ex-UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter told TASS.
"No, I don't think Europe can sustain this conflict [without the US]. With what? With NATO? NATO doesn't exist without the United States. If the United States decides that it will not commit its resources to the Ukrainian conflict, then this conflict no longer has a NATO dimension. So then we'd only be talking about Europe, and Europe has no collective ability to project military power. So no, Europe has no ability to sustain this conflict," Ritter believes.
He went on to say that Europe’s economy is "failing," as the continent is now undergoing a process of deindustrialization. "They've exhausted their military resources by pouring them into Ukraine. They're unable to replenish these resources. Their unity is fractured. We have nations in Europe starting to say that they don't want to be part of the European Union. We see a rise of anti-European political movements in Germany, in France, in Romania, in the Czech Republic, in Slovakia, and elsewhere," Ritter underscored.