Ukraine war: Putin misled by Russian military, says White House

Washington

The United States has information that Russian President Vladimir Putin felt misled by his military, the White House said Wednesday adding that the Ukraine war has been a strategic blunder.

“What I can say is, of course, we have information that Putin felt misled by the Russian military, which has resulted in persistent tension between Putin and his military leadership,” White House Press Secretary Kate Bedingfield told reporters at her daily news conference.

“We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the Russian military is performing and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions, because his senior advisors are too afraid to tell him the truth,” she said.

“So, it is increasingly clear that Putin’s war has been a strategic blunder that has left Russia weaker over the long term, and increasingly isolated on the world stage,” she said.

From the outset that Russia made an aggressive push toward Kiev at the beginning of the invasion. They are now publicly trying to redefine the goals of their invasion to be different than they were at the outset, she noted when asked about some declassified American intelligence information that Putin had bad information from his military.

“What does that mean for the war in Ukraine and the prospects for negotiations right now?” she was asked.

“I think putting forward this information simply contributes to a sense that this has been a strategic error for them. Again, I’m not going to characterize what they are thinking. I’m certainly not going to characterize how they may or may not use this information to make decisions. That’s not my place. But I do think that making this information public contributes to an understanding that this has been a strategic failure for Russia.