WASHINGTON: A White House official, the US has information that Russian President Vladimir Putin "felt misled" by his country's military, resulting in "continuous stress" during Moscow's ongoing invasion of Kiev.
"We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisors 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," White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said when asked by a reporter during a briefing on Wednesday if the Russian President has bad information based on declassified US intelligence.
As a result, it is becoming increasingly evident that Putin's conflict was a strategic error that has left Russia weaker in the long run and more isolated on the international stage." Russia, according to Bedingfield, is now "publicly attempting to reframe the goals of their invasion to be different than they were at the onset." She also stated that the US will stick to its approach of "imposing significant costs on Russia while attempting to empower Ukraine on the battlefield and at the negotiating table."
As per BBC, in a separate briefing on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that an uneducated Putin may result in a "less than faithful" effort to end the crisis through peace talks.
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