On Wednesday's edition of CNN's "OutFront," anchor Erin Burnett discussed Vladimir Putin's military failures in the Ukraine invasion with retired Col. Cedric Leighton.
"The Russians now say — they're trying to act as if any pullback from Kyiv is part of the plan, right?" said Burnett. "They've accomplished what they want and — which obviously makes no sense, but that's what they're saying. They're going to focus on the Donbas, which is what they intended to do all the way along. Now, even if that's what they do, we'll see, they continue to share Mariupol. It's not part of the Donbas. It connects Russia to the annexed Crimea. They are communicating many of their plans militarily on open channels. How significant is the technical failure for them right now?"
"It's huge, Erin," said Leighton. "It's an intelligence bonanza for the Ukrainians. It goes back to things the Russians have done in their military actually for over 100 years. They had this problem in World War I. They had this problem in World War II. They're having it now. They don't understand communications security at the lower level and they are — their encrypted system is supposed to work on 3G and 4G cell towers. They blew up a lot of those towers. That forces them to communicate in the clear. The fact that they're doing that makes it really easy for the Ukrainians to pick it up, and even private citizens in Ukraine, to help their forces intercept the locations and target the Russian entities that are talking."
"It's pretty stunning when you think about it," replied Burnett.
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