According to reports, Vladimir Putin’s military and security agencies are feverishly pointing fingers at one other after failing to seize control of its democratic neighbour. On February 24, Moscow started an invasion of Ukraine, expecting to destabilise the government in a couple of days.

However, more than a month after the battle began, there is indication that Russian forces are being pushed to retreat and rethink their military objectives.

“There are certainly some symptoms of self-reflection among the military that they have not done well,” a Western diplomat said.

“There is also a lot of self-reflection in the intelligence agency that they misread the Ukrainian national sentiment horribly.”

The Kremlin had anticipated to be greeted warmly by Ukrainians when it arrived in the nation, but they were taken aback by the animosity they encountered.

Another Western official stated that the blame game had caused Russians to turn on each other for their disastrous failures.

“That’s occurring across agencies and levels,” they explained.

“People are blaming other organisations or levels of leadership, and we’ve seen a number of commanders fired at various levels.”

“We’ve seen some died and definitely requiring replacement, but we’ve also seen several removed.

“The difficulty for them is that a force that was meant to have been modernised over the last ten years is proven incapable of operating in the manner in which they had practised, planned, and imagined they could.

“I believe we are again back in this attrition approach, and it will most likely take some time for them to adjust and alter.”

“We’ve seen several that have perished and will need to be replaced, but we’ve also seen some that have been removed.

“The problem for them is that a force that was supposed to have been modernised over the previous 10 years has been shown to be incapable of acting in the manner in which they had practised, planned, and hoped they could.

“I believe we have returned to this attrition strategy, and it will most likely take some time for them to react and change.”

According to Medinsky, Russia took a second big de-escalation move by agreeing to a prospective meeting of the two nations’ presidents at the same time as a peace accord was signed.

“However, we still have a long way to go to create such an agreement on a mutually acceptable basis,” he added.

Any transfer of Russian military from the area of Kyiv would be considered a “redeployment, not a withdrawal,” according to a US official.

“Any movement of Russian military from near Kyiv, we feel, is a repositioning, not a withdrawal.” And the world should brace itself for other massive offensives against other parts of Ukraine.