The deaths of senior Russian officers are historically unprecedented

• Retired Admiral James Stavridis said severe missteps led to deaths among the top Russian officers.
• So far, Stavridis said, Russia had shown “astonishing incompetence” in its invasion of Ukraine.
• “In recent history, there is no comparable situation in terms of the killing of generals,” he said.

James Stavridis, the former NATO supreme commander in Europe, said on Sunday that the Russian military’s “astonishing incompetence” in invading Ukraine had led to an unprecedented number of deaths among generals and other high-ranking officers.

Stavridis made a remark about the Russian forces During a radio interview WABC 770 AM With New York businessman John Katsimatidis.

“In recent history, there is no comparable situation in terms of the killing of generals … Here, on the Russian side, in a period of two months, we have seen at least ten, if not more, Russian generals killed,” he told Catsimatidis.

Stavridis noted that “no general was lost in actual combat” while the United States was fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Not only did the generals die,” he said of the Russian military, but noted its dysfunctional logistical practices and mediocre combat plans, along with Loss for its pioneering pioneer in the Black Sea Moskva.

“The Russians have done poorly so far,” he added.

Senior Russian military leaders Among those killed were Vladimir Petrovich Frolov, deputy commander of the Eighth Army; Vitaly Gerasimov, First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the 41st Army; And Sergey Sukharev, outstanding commander of the paratroopers of the 331st Parachute Regiment of the Parachute Guard.

Stavridis criticized Russia for committing war crimes across the country, beginning with the “illegal invasion of a neighbor and a democracy” and escalating the battle to include the “slaughter of civilians.”

The commander said that General Alexander Dvornikov – who was appointed by Moscow to lead the conflict – “is well known to Western intelligence as the ‘Butcher of Syria’.”

Dvornikov led by Russian forces In Syria in 2015, human rights groups are closely monitoring his efforts.

Stavridis said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “creating an expansion of NATO through his unprovoked attack on a neighbour”, and nothing “other NATO countries could join as a result, notably Sweden and Finland, which [have] very capable armies.”

“It’s not just NATO. It’s democracies all over the world,” he added, referring to Japan’s staunch opposition to Russia’s actions.

Last month, retired Gen. David Petraeus – the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency who commanded the 101st Airborne Division during the Iraq war in 2003 and commanded US forces in Afghanistan – echoed similar sentiments, tells CNN That the Russian military forces were “surprisingly unprofessional” in the performance of their mission in Ukraine.

“Obviously they have very poor standards when it comes to performing basic tactical missions such as achieving combined arms operations that include armor, infantry, engineers, artillery and mortars,” he said.

“We have known for decades that the Soviet system, now the Russian system, has always lacked one of the main strengths of the American and Western armies, the strength of professional and professional non-commissioned officers,” he added.