US INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS have determined that Vladimir Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about Russian forces’ performance in Ukraine, according to an official.
The source said recently declassified intelligence suggests the president has felt misled by the Russian military and there is now persistent tension between him and his senior defence officials.
The US official did not detail underlying evidence for how intelligence officers made the determination.
The intelligence community concluded that Putin was unaware that his military had been using and losing conscripts in Ukraine.
They also determined that he is not fully aware of the extent to which the Russian economy is being damaged by economic sanctions imposed by the West.
The findings demonstrate a “clear breakdown in the flow of accurate information” to Putin, and show that his senior advisers are “afraid to tell him the truth”, the official said.
The new intelligence comes after the White House yesterday expressed scepticism about Moscow’s public announcement that it would dial back operations near Kyiv in an effort to increase trust in talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials in Turkey.
“We’ll see,” US President Joe Biden said about that announcement. “I don’t read anything into it until I see what their actions are.”
Russian forces pounded areas around Ukraine’s capital and another city overnight, regional leaders said today.
White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said the administration views any movement of Russian forces as a “redeployment and not a withdrawal” and “no one should be fooled by Russia’s announcement”.
Biden was set to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today to discuss the latest developments in the war.
Putin has long been seen outside Russia as insular and surrounded by officials who do not always tell him the truth.
US officials have said publicly they believe that limited flow of information – possibly exacerbated by his heightened isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic – may have given the Russian president unrealistic views of how quickly he could overrun Ukraine.
The Biden administration launched an unprecedented effort before the war to publicise what it believed were Putin’s invasion plans, drawing on intelligence findings.
While Russia still invaded, the White House was widely credited with drawing attention to Ukraine and pushing initially reluctant allies to back tough sanctions that have hammered the Russian economy.
But underscoring the limits of intelligence, the US also underestimated Ukraine’s will to fight before the invasion, said Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, head of the Defence Intelligence Agency, in recent evidence to Congress.
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