David Petraeus: Top Russian military official getting 'desperate' as Putin leans on him to make progress

On Monday, former Gen. David Petraeus told CNN's Jake Tapper that a key Russian military official is feeling the heat for the ongoing failure of the invasion of Ukraine.

"We're told that the chief of staff for the Russian military recently visited Ukraine, including the Donbas region," said Tapper. "The U.S. says it isn't sure why he traveled to the Russian front lines. What do you make of that?"

"Well, he's probably trying to figure out what is going on, why can't we make progress?" said Petraeus, who previously headed the CIA. "He's down there trying to work with the commander. You know, they now have one commander in charge, General Dvornikov, the Butcher of Syria, known for the bombing of Aleppo in 2016. They really haven't made the progress that they hoped to achieve. And so he's probably down there trying to figure out why is it that we can't achieve combined armed effects. Why is it we can't integrate air and ground operations, why aren't we doing better? And of course, he did narrowly avoid, apparently, the demolition of the command post at which he was located during his visit. With a loss of another Russian general, reportedly."

"So again, he is probably getting desperate," said Petraeus. "I'm sure that President Putin is putting enormous pressure on him and on Defense Minister Shoigu, to achieve something, again, that he can announce, Putin can announce, on 9 May in Moscow."

RELATED: Russia just demonstrated their ‘total depravity’ – according to this former US ambassador

Petraeus has previously predicted that Putin will face severe political consequences for the Ukraine invasion as the worldwide embargo against Russia causes economic collapse. The war, which experts once feared would result in Russia rapidly seizing the capital city of Kyiv, has stalled out with Russia struggling to hold territory in the east.

It's been claimed that numerous Russian generals have also been killed in combat, which Petraeus has explained is due to a breakdown in the Russian military's command structure.

Watch below or at this link:

David Petraeus says Russian military chief of staff is "desperate"www.youtube.com

NOW WATCH: 'Extremely dangerous' murder suspect and Alabama jail officer suspected of fleeing together

'Extremely dangerous' murder suspect and Alabama jail officer suspected of fleeing togetherwww.youtube.com