Former Army chief: Russians made 'every possible military mistake'

It has been six months since the Russian military entered Ukraine and a former Chief of the General Staff has said the Russians have "failed spectacularly".

"Every possible military mistake that the Russians could have made, they made and a few more that we hadn't even dreamt of, and that attack from the north failed spectacularly", Lord Dannatt told Forces News.

Lord Dannatt believes the Russian performance has been a "surprise to any honest military observer from the West", adding: "I think we all credited them with a greater capability than has been demonstrated."

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However, he did highlight that the West has "involved itself in a lot of major operations in the last 30, 40 years". 

"The coalition, NATO, has got used to planning larger operations, the Russians haven't done this. 

"Their only major intervention was in Afghanistan, and we all know what a disaster that was. Beyond that, they've made limited interventions in Syria.

"But in terms of planning a major campaign, exercising proper top-down command and control of an operational nature, they haven't done it. And they've failed spectacularly."

Wednesday marks six months since Russia invaded on 24 February, and is a day that coincides with the Independence Day of Ukraine – when the Declaration of Independence from the Soviet Union was issued in 1991.

Lord Dannatt believes that the conflict "at some point" will eventually return to negotiations.

He said: "This started with a breakdown in negotiations, there's now at least a six-month, and a little bit longer, period of warfighting. But as Clausewitz said, 'war is a continuation of politics by other means'. This will go back to negotiation at some point."