Russian President Vladimir Putin is being misled by his advisers over fears of Moscow's war on Ukraine and the poor performance of Kremlin troops in the region, U.S. intelligence officials said.
One U.S. official who spoke under the condition of anonymity discussed recently declassified intelligence. On Wednesday, they said that the intelligence finding indicated that Putin was aware of the situation of the information that was being given to him.
Misleading Putin
There was a persistent tension between the Russian president and senior military officials regarding the accuracy of the reports. United States President Joe Biden told reporters that he would not comment on the matter.
Later on Wednesday, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield also did not say whether or not the president of the United States approved the release of the intelligence. The situation comes as the Biden administration is hopeful that divulging the finding could help in urging Putin to reconsider his war on Ukraine, as per CBS News.
The unprovoked invasion has led to a bloody stalemate between Russian and Ukrainian troops in the majority of the regions. Furthermore, both sides have suffered heavy casualties and Russian troop morale continues to drop as Ukrainian forces and volunteers continue to put up an unexpected resistance.
The senior U.S. official said Putin's advisers are not telling the Russian president the truth about the situation in Ukraine because they are "too afraid to tell him the truth." The official argued that Putin was not even aware that his military was using and losing conscripts in the region, which shows a clear breakdown of the flow of accurate information.
According to Yahoo News, on Tuesday, Western officials said that Russian elites would most likely blame each other for the situation in Ukraine which is being considered "disastrous progress" by Russia. The official said that Russian officials would be quite defensive about their own failures related to the invasion.
Situation in Ukraine
The situation comes as the Ukrainian military is preparing for a potential Russian offensive in the eastern region of the country. On Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky made the remarks as the war entered its fifth week.
Zelensky's administration released a video address where he mentioned that Russian troop movements were going away from Kyiv and Chernihiv. He added that the move was not seen as a withdrawal but rather the "consequence of our defenders' work."
Moscow announced on Wednesday that it was going to significantly scale back military operations in the aforementioned cities. Ukrainian officials said a day later that there were reports of shelling outside Kyiv and fighting in Chernihiv.
Many are starting to think that the war may not have a diplomatic end due to peace talks not resulting in any concrete agreements or compromises.
President Zelensky previously said that Ukrainian authorities were in the process of negotiating peace with Russia but had achieved no concrete results. Meanwhile, a local ceasefire in Ukraine's besieged port city of Mariupol was announced in an attempt to evacuate civilians after the area has become the place where at least 5,000 civilians have lost their lives, the Hindustan Times reported.
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