World Affairs International

U.S. Intelligence suggests that Vladimir Putin may be fed false information on the war by his fearful inner circle.

According to the report, Putin wasn’t aware of his army’s failure, nor the use of conscripts and general troop losses. With the necessary retreat from Kyiv given a month of catastrophic failure, a great wedge has formed between Putin and his military advisors regarding the failed operations and promises he made to the Russian people, which mere days later were disavowed by Russian officials.

So far, there has been little to no centralization in the Russian military operation. Forces near Kyiv, the Donbas, and Crimea seem to be operating under local groups. WorldAffairs.International tuned into radio discussions between Russian army groups; translations revealed a nightmarish, tactical failure. On the one hand, this is the failure of the Russian BTG, an already intrinsically flawed force relying too heavily on armor and existing infrastructure.

But on the other hand, Russia had eight years to prepare a modern, effective force that should have been able to take objectives in Ukraine. Instead, the Russian army has been a catastrophic failure; the question of where funds vanished could be raised but is answered quickly by the excess of the Russian oligarchs in their yachts and estates.