On CNN Friday, former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson analyzed the poor performance of the Russian military in the invasion of Ukraine.
"I know the Ukrainian foreign minister has told CNN today he doesn't believe the Russian forces are strong enough, his words, to sustain a three-front war in Ukraine," said anchor Wolf Blitzer. "Do you think Putin would be willing to admit that and start to scale back his ambitions?"
"I don't think Vladimir Putin would admit that," said Johnson. "It does seem, however, that assumptions and estimates about the strength of the Russian military have been vastly overestimated. It appears to be the Russian bear is overweight and untrained. What we see, in my judgment, seems to be a very haphazard effort in the invasion of Ukraine, where they're focused on one front one week and focused on another front in another week."
Johnson then elaborated on why the Russian military might be underperforming.
"Many have drawn great significance from the fact that there's no battlefield commander in the territory of Ukraine running this effort by the Russian military," continued Johnson. "I think there might be something to that. Typically, in a confrontation like this, there is a battlefield commander responsible for the joint forces of the force that is in that country ... here you don't have that. The effort by the Russians seems to be very haphazard, very opportunistic, as if Vladimir Putin is flailing about trying to get somewhere."
Watch below:
Jeh Johnson says "the Russian bear is overweight and untrained" www.youtube.com
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