According to Western diplomats, Vladimir Putin’s military leaders may be lying to him about how badly Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is going.
Despite their commitment to the President, army generals are said to be hesitant to share with him the full depth of the obstacles and defeats Russian forces have experienced in the last month.
According to the Mirror, one Western diplomat believes the Kremlin’s top brass are too afraid to inform Putin what is actually going on over the border for fear of being chastised for their errors.
Misjudging the strength of Ukraine’s opposition is regarded to have been a key mistake that Russia’s military officials have so far avoided confessing to their boss.
“Even if they were capable of influencing him, would they be willing to tell him the truth about the very terrible progress of this campaign?” one Western official said.
“I believe we’re considerably less confident that he’s receiving an accurate picture on the ground.”
Russian losses and Ukrainian resistance since Kremlin forces invaded on February 24 have astonished military experts and sparked furious infighting within Russia’s leadership.
“I think it’s also possible that inside the Russian system, many components will be blaming each other for the lack of success, which will exacerbate the task of getting the facts through,” another source said.
“People will be quite defensive about their own shortcomings and, I believe, will be eager to cast the finger at others.”
The reported withdrawals of Moscow forces demonstrated “just how terribly President Putin misjudged,” they continued.
According to Western authorities, Kremlin agents were responsible for a “catastrophic” intelligence failure in the run-up to the invasion.
There have also been reports that spies who realised the dangers of war were too afraid to notify their bosses.
“There’s a lot of self-reflection in the intelligence services that they misread the Ukrainian national sentiment horribly,” one official said.
“Insofar as they got it correct, they didn’t convey it well.”
The official praised Ukrainian resistance, saying the conflict was “developing – if it did not already exist – a sense of Ukrainian sacrifice and nationhood and an unwillingness to surrender to Russia, which will probably remain for decades and will make this country tough to subjugate for Russia.”
Boris Johnson spoke by phone with US President Joe Biden, French Premier Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
They “agreed on the continuous need to assist and sustain the people of Ukraine in their battle against Russian savagery,” according to a No10 spokesman.
“The Prime Minister emphasised that we must assess Putin’s administration by their deeds, not their rhetoric,” she continued.
“Putin is twisting the dagger in Ukraine’s gaping wound in order to drive the nation and its supporters to succumb.” The Prime Minister told his other leaders, “We must be unyielding in our reaction.”
