our viewers joining us in the united states. i m bianca nobilo. i m max foster. just ahead on cnn newsroom. cnn has learned that lisa marie presley, the only daughter of elvis presley, has died. i m here today to announce the appointment of robert herr, special counsel. it was in the interest to appoint a special counsel. we need to run. everybody, y all hear me. when we say we are blessed, we are blessed. announcer: live from london, this is cnn newsroom with max foster and bianca nobilo. it is friday, january 13th. 9 a.m. here in london where many people around the world are mourning the loss of lisa marie presley, elvis s only child. here she is singing i love you, pops in a duet with her father, the king of rock and roll. lisa marie followed in his footsteps becoming a musician, singer and songwriter. she released three albums. one of which reached gold. the life with lisa marie presley. reporter: lisa marie presley seen here at the globe a
official saying this appointment shows that russia s war efforts in ukraine simply aren t going to plan. if everything was in order, we wouldn t be seeing personnel changes of this rank of this frequency. that was the message we heard echoed in the u.s. the message from the pentagon spokesperson there saying this move could suggest that russia is still facing significant obstacles on the ground. take a listen. i m not going to speculate per se on how this might affect things on the battlefield other than to say it likely does reflect some of the systemic challenges that the russian military has faced sips the beginning of this invasion. now, look, we ve heard from ukrainian military officials as well as western intelligence about those challenges over the last 11 months from logistics and supply challenges to sustainment problems. we even heard from president putin speaking yesterday. he acknowledged one of the many challenges that they re
mistakes we saw carried out multiple times around kyiv. but they have yet to determine if they ll be able to do so. they re still seeing some of the same logistics and sustainment problems, and one of the key issues that will be very hard to fix is the morale issues. a senior defense official says the russians conscripts come in very amped up for the fight. they have been, quote, feasting on russian propaganda, only to find out that the battle on the ground in ukraine is going very differently. oren liebermann, cnn, at the pentagon. well, let s talk about what s happening on the battlefield. a senior analyst at the australian institute joins us from canberra. great to have you on the show. let me get your reaction first of all to that missile attack we saw in kyiv. is this a message that the capital is not safe or a message to u.n. and nato given that the u.n. secretary-general was here when it happened? look, i think it s both.
earlier on morning joe, we spoke with pentagon press secretary john kirby about the challenges russia is facing as it moves into the new phase of the war. we don t believe they have overcome all their lo gist eks and sustainment problems, unit cohesion and morale, organization. all those problems are still bedevilling the russian military. air to ground integration is still not very good. that said, what they re going to try to do here is refocus on a smaller geographic area so we ll be able to apply all that available combat power, and they stim have a lot of it, in a smaller geographic area. you ve seen they ve named a new general to take over as commander in chief so they re trying to do better as organizing their force and getting cohesion and command and control in better shape than it s been. and they ll be able to concentrate those efforts on an area that the russians and ukrainians have been fighting over for eight years. both sides know the terrain. it s like kansas, open
sustainment problems and unable to have any great speed. so to what you were just saying, this is an opportunity for the ukrainians, is this also maybe on the other side of that an indication of just how long of a slog this will be as the russians have this difficult to bring those troops, the hardware in. you know, look, i think we need to understand that there is only one thing that putin understands and that is force. i m not saying sanctions aren t important, or sanctions have their impact but make no mistake about it, what putin pays attention to is force. and our ability to with ukraine and our allies to give them the capabilities to strike back, at a point when russia is