Analysts believe Putin was misled by his intelligence and military chiefs into expecting a quick and easy victory over Ukraine. The Russian leader is thought to have anticipated little opposition from Ukrainians and loyalists willing to support a Kremlin-installed puppet government.

However, Russian forces have encountered stiff resistance from both Ukrainian troops and civilians, causing the invasion to stall.

According to the most recent intelligence briefing from the UK Ministry of Defence, Russia has suffered “considerable losses” in Ukraine, while NATO estimates Moscow has lost up to a fifth of its combat forces just one month into the conflict.

Putin is reportedly blaming the FSB, Russia’s domestic security agency, for the stalled invasion, which the panicked leader believes has been infiltrated by spies.

According to Business Insider, Putin has placed two FSB Fifth Service commanders under house arrest.

Sergei Beseda and his deputy were detained in the last week, according to Andrei Soldatov, an investigative journalist and expert on Russian security services.

According to Mr Soldatov, one of the fifth department’s responsibilities is liaising with the CIA, making it “the first place to look for Western spies.”

He claimed the pair were in charge of things like political subversion and establishing local networks to support the Ukraine invasion.

Meanwhile, according to Mr Soldatov’s sources, the Russian military’s counterintelligence division has launched an investigation to identify possible spies and foreign agents in the FSB.

“What we see in Moscow is a sense of desperation in terms of the lack of political support for the invasion in Ukraine,” he said.

The fact that Western intelligence reports contained details of Russia’s military buildup, plans, and difficulties with the invasion, according to Mr Soldatov, has sparked fears in the Kremlin that the FSB has been infiltrated by foreign intelligence.

Moscow has reportedly grown increasingly suspicious that spies have been infiltrating its military plans and passing them on to the West.

Mr Soldatov stated that in Russia, “we have military counterintelligence looking into the activities of the FSB’s fifth department, which basically means that they started looking for moles because military counterintelligence is basically identifying Western spies.”

“And that makes some sense,” he added, “because, of course, many people in Moscow are wondering why the US intelligence was so good.”

Despite reports that the “special military operation” has come to a halt, the Kremlin has publicly stated that it is proceeding as planned.

CIA Director Bill Burns recently told Congress that Russian President Vladimir Putin expected Ukraine to fall in two days.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told CNN on Tuesday that claims Russia expected a quick and easy victory were false and that the invasion was proceeding as planned.

“Russia’s special military operation is going on strictly in accordance with the plans and with the purposes that were established beforehand,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

He insisted that no one expected the operation to last “a couple of days,” despite reports in Russia’s state media implying Putin had planned for a quick victory.

According to Mr Soldatov, Russia’s difficulties stem from underestimating the opposition of all levels of Ukrainian society, rather than from flawed intelligence.

Putin has frequently expressed his disdain for the country and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been fighting alongside Ukrainian troops on the front lines.

On the eve of the invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused him of being a drug addict and called Ukrainian national identity a “fiction.”

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has determined that Russian forces are “struggling on many fronts,” including refuelling issues and other logistical issues.

According to US intelligence, Russia’s “combat power,” which consisted of over 150,000 troops amassed prior to the invasion, has fallen below 90% for the first time, as Moscow has suffered heavy losses at the hands of Ukrainian soldiers.