Ex-US General: Russia Is Exhausted and Could Buckle by the End of 2022

On Aug 24th, it was reported that a retired US Army general said Russian forces inside Ukraine were exhausted and could collapse by the end of the year.

Ben Hodges, who served in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, disagrees with predictions that the conflict could expand into a protracted war of attrition. Hodges said in Ukraine on the day of commemoration of the 31st anniversary of independence from the former Soviet Union that the Russians were running out of logistics and could do nothing but continue firing shells at civilian targets. Even so, shelling has dropped markedly over the past few weeks.

His comments received support from the current British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who sees Russia in a very fragile position. Wallace said in an interview, “I spoke to my intelligence chiefs this morning before coming on, you know, Russia’s advance can be measured in metres per week, not miles.”

“We pretty much accept, well, we do accept, the sort of observations of Russian losses to be – if you combine deaths, injuries, desertions – over 80,000 of their armed forces. That’s 80,000 in six months compared to 15,000 they lost in a decade in Afghanistan.”

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told world leaders that Putin must not be allowed to repeat the annexation of Crimea in other parts of Ukraine. Allies should continue supporting Ukraine until Russian troops withdraw from its territory.