Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. James Marks put the blame for Russia’s reportedly faltering invasion of Ukraine firmly on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his excessive pride.
Marks, now a military analyst for CNN, said Wednesday that Putin likely thought the invasion would be a 48-hour “cakewalk” with cities across Ukraine falling quickly to his troops. The war is now in its fourth week with the United Nations estimating that some 7,000 to 15,000 Russian troops have been killed so far.
“I mean, that’s hubris,” Marks told anchor Pamela Brown. “That’s a misunderstanding, a strategic miscalculation that’s incredibly huge. And Putin is in the intel business and he totally blew it. I mean, that’s phenomenal.”
Russian forces were ill-prepared to successfully invade Ukraine as a direct result of Putin’s arrogance, Marks continued.
“They thought they would … get into Kyiv and they’d immediately be welcomed and they’d have an opportunity to be replenished in (a) short amount of time. That has been totally exposed,” he explained. An “incredible lack of leadership” meant supplies couldn’t get to the front line and Russian soldiers didn’t know what they were supposed to do, nor crucially why they were doing it.
“I mean, it’s a total collapse of the Russian military,” he added.
Watch the interview here:
