The head of Britain’s GCHQ secret agent provider said on Wednesday that new brain showed some Russian troopers in Ukraine had refused to lift out orders, sabotaged their personal tools and by accident shot down one of their own aircraft.
“We’ve viewed Russian soldiers short of weapons and morale – refusing to carry out orders, sabotaging their very own tools and even by accident capturing down their own aircraft,” Fleming said.
Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has killed heaps of people, displaced hundreds of thousands and raised fears of a wider disagreement between Russia and the United States.
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) chief Jeremy Fleming said President Vladimir Putin had “massively misjudged” the abilities of Russia’s once mighty armed forces while underestimating both the resistance of the Ukrainian human beings and the get to the bottom of of the West, which has punished Moscow with mostly coordinated sanctions.
“Putin has hugely misjudged the situation,” Fleming said in a speech in Canberra at the Australian National University, according to a transcript of his remarks. “We consider Putin’s advisers are afraid to tell him the truth.”
Citing new intelligence, Fleming said there used to be evidence that Russian troopers had low morale and were poorly equipped.
Reuters used to be unable to independently confirm GCHQ’s analysis.
GCHQ, which gathers communications from around the world to become aware of and disrupt threats to Britain, has a shut relationship with the US. National Security Agency and with the eavesdropping corporations of Australia, Canada and New Zealand in a consortium referred to as “Five Eyes”.
Russia’s defence ministry says its armed forces are expert and carrying out their duty in Ukraine with significant success. It says the West has spread lies about the operation in an attempt to convey down Russia.
The United States assesses that Russia is suffering failure rates as high as 60 per cent for some of its precision-guided missiles, three US officials with knowledge of the Genius told Reuters.
Putin was misled by using advisers who were too scared to tell him how poorly the combat in Ukraine is going and how unfavorable Western sanctions have been, US and European officials said on Wednesday. The Kremlin made no on the spot comment.
Putin said the “special forces operation” in Ukraine was crucial because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and to protect Moscow against the persecution of Russian-speaking people by Ukraine.
Ukraine says it is fighting an imperialist-style land grab and Putin’s claims of genocide are nonsense.
Russia says the West has effectively declared financial hostilities against Russia, and so it will now turn east, away from Europe, and forge a partnership with China.
“But there are risks for each of them (and more for China) in being too closely connected,” Fleming said.
“Russia is aware that in the long term, China will become increasingly powerful militarily and economically. Some of their pursuits conflict; Russia should be taken out of the equation.”