Russian President Vladimir Putin is in an "irreversibly desperate situation" in Ukraine and even his call to bring up 300,000 reservists will not reverse the direction of the war, according to former CIA Director David Petraeus.
“At the end of the day, the situation looks very dire indeed for Vladimir Putin," the retired general said in an interview with radio talk show host John Catsimatidis on "The Cats Roundtable" on WABC 770 AM. Patraeus explained that Ukraine has mobilized its capabilities more than Russia has, leading to the country's major counteroffensive that has allowed it to put Russia on the defensive and retake several thousand miles of seized territory.
Putin's call for the reservists also won't change the war's momentum, as it will produce "cannon fodder," not "well-trained, well-equipped, cohesive troops and units," he said.
Meanwhile, Petraeus said the international community should take Putin's threats of using tactical nuclear weapons to protect Russia, including the annexed regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, seriously, even though he expects they'll prove to be "empty."
“The United States national security adviser publicly has said that he has communicated, our government has communicated, with the Russian government that the response to any use of nuclear weapons would be catastrophic in nature to them,” Petraeus said.
Putin claims that 90% of the voters in the four regions agreed to the annexation referendum, but the international community has denounced them as being held under pressure from armed Russian soldiers and says the move was illegal.
Petraeus further dismissed Putin's play to "make Russia great again," and said his actions have instead made NATO "great again" because the countries of Sweden and Finland, which are traditionally neutral, have agreed to come into the alliance.
The retired general also called the damages Putin has caused to Russia ironic, considering his criticisms of former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his actions during the collapse of the USSR.
"He is doing equal damage if not greater damage to the Russian Federation," Petraeus commented.
Petraeus, also appearing Sunday morning on ABC's "This Week" commented that Putin is "losing."
"The reality facing Russia now is that Ukraine, a country one-third the size of Russia has a bigger, much more effective army on the ground and other assets as well, all of this of course supported by the arsenal of democracy, the United States," he said. "He faces a situation that's irreversible. No amount of annexation or veiled nuclear threats can get him out of this situation…he'll continue to lose on the battlefield and at some point, there's going to have to be recognition of that and some kind of the beginning of negotiations."