Russia-Ukraine conflict: Vladimir Putin being misled by advisers, say US, UK

Russia has been unsuccessful in taking control of Ukraine for more than a month since its invasion. According to intelligence from the US and the UK, the advisers of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin appear to be misleading him as the invasion is not going according to their plan.

AFP reports that UK and US intelligence agencies are claiming that Putin’s own advisers are misleading him regarding the invasion, with Russian troops shooting their own equipment and even accidentally shooting down their own aircraft. The agencies also went on to say that the advisers are “too afraid” to tell Putin the truth about the events happening on the ground and the real impact of the sanctions placed on Russia by many countries condemning its invasion.

The UK’s GCHQ spy agency released its assessment hours after the White House released its report. UK intelligence chief Jeremy Fleming said Thursday that Putin overestimated his military’s ability to succeed in invading Ukraine.

“We’ve seen Russian soldiers – short of weapons and morale – refusing to carry out orders, sabotaging their own equipment and even accidentally shooting down their own aircraft,” said Fleming in his remarks at the Australian National University in Canberra.

“And even though Putin’s advisers are afraid to tell him the truth, what’s going on and the extent of these misjudgments must be crystal clear to the regime,” Fleming added, noting that Putin also underestimated the resistance by Ukraine to Russia’s aggression and the united front of the West along with the impact of the sanctions.

Fleming’s remarks echoed the briefing of declassified information at the White House, saying that Putin’s relations with his own staff are deteriorating. White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said that Putin felt misled by his own military.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s state nuclear company said that Russian forces have completely retreated from the Chernobyl power plant after it was occupied for weeks. The country’s agency in charge of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Energoatom, shared the news on Facebook.

“There are no longer any outsiders on the territory of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,” said the agency. The UN’s nuclear watchdog, IAEA, also confirmed that Russian forces were no longer at the power plant.