The Russian military is top-heavy, with generals playing a larger role in day-to-day operations than in other militaries.[30][55] Russian battalion commanders were given more authority only three years before the invasion.[3] According to analysts and Western officials, Russia had deployed approximately 20 general officers to Ukraine.[9][56] Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, described the number of Russian generals killed as "a shocking number",[56] while David Petraeus, the former director of the CIA, remarked that it is "very uncommon" for so many generals to be killed and that the Ukrainian military was "picking them off left and right".[57] The Washington Post stated that generals were "killed at a rate not seen since World War II".[6]