Russian President Vladimir Putin showed "desperation" in his recent decision to replace the military head of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, several U.S. experts told The Hill.
Sources said the Kremlin's demotion of Gen. Sergey Surovikin in favor of former chief of the general staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov to lead ground forces indicated the country's so-called "special military operation" had collapsed.
"My sense is that Putin is flailing because he's not getting what he wants," former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor told the outlet. "His military is failing."
Putin's "trying to shake things up in order to get a better outcome, and that's not the problem," Taylor continued. "His military is not capable of doing what he wants for all kinds of institutional, historical, corruption, competence reasons.
"And shaking up the command structure, I don't think it is going to get him what he wants."
Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder reiterated Taylor's assessment talking to reporters last week, insisting Gerasimov's promotion reflects "some of the systemic challenges that the Russian military has faced since the beginning of this invasion."
"We've talked about some of those things in terms of its logistics problems, command and control problems, sustainment problems, morale, and the large failure to obtain the strategic objectives that they've set for themselves," Ryder revealed.
But another former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, John Herbst, warned a shake-up in the Kremlin does not make Russia any less dangerous and the country still has "significant assets" on the battlefield.
"They have a hell of a lot more ammunition and delivery systems than Ukrainians do, and they have more men than the Ukrainians do, and they're willing to let them die to try and get marginal pieces of territory," Herbst shared, adding Putin was "happy to see others receive blame for the failures of his operation."
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