I spoke with Ireland’s RTE Radio 1 on Monday about Vladimir Putin’s appointment of Gen. Aleksandr Dvornikov (pictured) to lead a unified command of Russia’s flagging invasion of Ukraine.

Listen to Discussion from 7:00

I tell Claire Byrne of Dvornikov’s record, including his leadership of Russia’s killing of thousands of civilians — with destruction of hospitals, markets, schools, and other infrastructure — in bombardment and siege of Syrian cities such as Aleppo.

What the Russians did — and this is a clue for what they might do in Ukraine — was level much of Syria with airpower.

The difference from Ukraine, so far, is that the Russian assault in Syria was successfully linked to a strategy to siege and invade.

I also analyze why Putin did not unify command before this point, contributing to the failure of his “Plan A” to occupy much of Ukraine and overthrow the Zelenskiy Government.

This has to do with the arrogance of Vladimir Putin. This is his legacy, to make Ukraine part of greater Russia and hand it to Russians for generations.

He thinks he is the world’s best intelligence officer, and I think he believes he is the world’s best commander.