Putin's inner circle will bail before 'he drives the bus off the cliff': retired general

Appearing on MSNBC on Sunday afternoon, retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who formerly served as the Commanding General, U.S. Army Europe, claimed that Russia's Ukraine invasion is going so poorly that it could collapse within five days.

Speaking with host Alex Witt, Hodges explained that he doesn't see a 'desperate" Putin unleashing a nuke but there is still a chance he will use chemical weapons. He then explained that those close to Putin won't want to be there for the inevitable bad ending.

''I do believe my professional assessment is that Russia is going to culminate, the culminating point, within the next five to six days because they have serious manpower shortages, serious logistical problems," he told the MSNBC host. "The rumors are flying around about the head of the FSB being arrested, clearly the Kremlin is starting to look for scapegoats."

"You have six generals killed so far, these are indicators of a lot of different problems. So what does the Kremlin do?" he asked rhetorically. "Of course, they could use chemical weapons; Putin has used poison, a nerve agent against his own people, both in the UK and of course against [Putin political opponent Alexei] Navalny, so I wouldn't put it past him to use some sort of chemical agent. But I have got to believe that there are people around him that are thinking about life after this, that they do not want to be with him when he drives the bus off the cliff. Same when it comes to nuclear weapons, a tactical nuclear weapon, smaller nuclear weapon will be terrible, but that will not change the eventual outcome as long as we continue to provide what is needed to Ukraine."

Watch below:

MSNBC 03 20 2022 14 17 59 youtu.be