According to Western intelligence, Russian President Vladimir Putin was misinformed about the situation in Ukraine. GCHQ chief Jeremy Fleming said on a visit to Australia that Putin’s advisers are afraid to tell him the truth. However, the extent of the errors in judgment must be clear to the Kremlin. The US government had already made similar statements.
In Washington, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield, citing intelligence information, said Putin felt cheated by the Russian military. This causes ongoing tensions between the Kremlin chief and the military leadership. US Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said it was a cause for concern if Putin was misinformed or uninformed about what was happening in Ukraine.
Russians ‘deeply demoralized’
Fleming said in Canberra that Russian forces were deeply demoralized. “We have seen Russian soldiers – lacking weapons and morale – refusing to obey orders, sabotaging their own equipment and even accidentally shooting down their own plane.”
There are logistical errors, many Russian casualties and chaos within the military leadership. “We have seen how Putin lied to his own people to hide military incompetence,” Fleming said in his speech at the Australian National University, which the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) published on Thursday night.
Putin underestimated both the resistance of the Ukrainians and the unity of the West and the consequences of sanctions. “He overestimated his military’s ability to win a quick victory.”
Now Putin is trying to make up for the mistakes even more severely, also in Russia itself, Fleming said. “He seeks brutal control over the media and internet access, seeks to stifle opposition voices and invests heavily in propaganda and covert activities.”
Fleming said it was entirely intentional for Western intelligence agencies to release a large amount of information. This is to ensure the truth is heard, the agency’s head said. British and US intelligence, in particular, warned of an attack with rare openness before the start of the Russian invasion and have published information regularly since the beginning of the war.