Biden said: “There is also evidence that it is strengthening its troops in the Donbas region – a region of Ukraine where Putin has recognized two separatist territories as independent states. “Depending on what you think of Putin. I’m a little skeptical,” he added.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday it had decided to “drastically reduce hostilities” in the direction of Kiev and Chernigov, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said, according to state media RIA. Earlier on Thursday, however, a U.S. defense official told reporters that Russian forces continued to focus their attacks on Ukraine in four areas, including the capital. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that a “small number” of Russian troops were “beginning to be repositioned” and that while it was “not clear” where the troops were going, the United States “sees no indication that they will go.” to be sent home “. The best US estimate is that Russian troops will likely be relocated to Belarus to be relocated and refueled for use “elsewhere in Ukraine,” Kirby added. The United States has seen some Russian troops leave the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine, Kirby added. These troops “are heading north to return to Belarus,” Kirby said. In the midst of the reshuffle, the White House says there are no plans for Biden and Putin to speak. Any conversation between the two men, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said on Thursday, would require a serious de-escalation by the Russians in Ukraine – setting a high bar for re-engagement.

U.S. intelligence says Putin was misled by his military advisers

The U.S. government on Wednesday released declassified information indicating that Putin had been seduced by military advisers into the Russian military’s poor performance in Ukraine and how the Russian economy was being crippled by sanctions. Bedingfield said at the time that the US intelligence community also had information indicating that the Russian leader was aware of the misinformation, leading to a rift between him and senior defense officials. U.S. government officials have expressed confidence in the information, with Bedingfield saying Putin is being misled “because his top advisers are too afraid to tell him the truth.” Responding to allegations by US intelligence, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said the United States could not understand what was happening in Moscow, according to Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.
“Unfortunately, neither the State Department nor the Pentagon has any real information about what is happening in the Kremlin. They just do not understand what is happening in the Kremlin. They do not understand Russian President Vladimir Putin. “They do not understand the decision-making mechanism and they do not understand the style of our work,” Peshkov said on Thursday. Biden later said on Thursday that there was some evidence that Putin was isolating and punishing some of his advisers, but added that the United States did not have enough hard evidence to say for sure. When asked by CNN’s MJ Lee how badly Putin’s advisers were being misinformed by his advisers, Biden replied: “This is an open-ended question. and there are some indications that … he fired or placed some of his advisers under house arrest. “ “But I do not want to put too much into it at the moment, because we do not have so much hard data,” he added. Biden’s comments came after he announced a two-pronged plan to relieve Americans on the pump that began when Russian oil was sidelined and to increase US energy independence. As part of the plan, it announced the unprecedented release of oil from US reserves and measures to boost domestic production of critical minerals needed to build batteries for electric vehicles and long-term energy storage. The release of the Strategic Oil Reserve will amount to 180 million barrels of oil, about 1 million barrels per day, according to Biden. This story has been updated with additional reports on Thursday. CNN’s Ellie Kaufman and Zahra Ullah contributed to this report.