The findings, recently declassified, indicate that Putin is aware of the situation regarding the information coming to him and that there is now persistent tension between him and senior Russian military officials. “The United States believes that Putin is being misled not only about the performance of his military but also about how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions because, again, his top advisers are too afraid to tell him the truth.” of the White House Kate Bedingfield. Wednesday. Earlier, President Joe Biden said in an exchange of views with reporters that he could not comment on the information. The government hopes the revelation of the finding could help Putin reconsider his choices in Ukraine, according to a US official. The official was not authorized to comment and spoke on condition of anonymity. The war has led to a bloody stalemate in much of the country, with heavy casualties and the morale of Russian troops sinking as Ukrainian forces and volunteers project an unexpectedly strong defense. But the publicity could also further jeopardize Putin’s isolation, which U.S. officials say seems at least partly driven by a desire to regain Russian prestige lost since the fall of the Soviet Union. “What he is doing is emphasizing that this was a strategic blunder for Russia,” Bendingfield said of the intelligence findings. “But I’m not going to describe how Π Vladimir Putin can think that.” Biden, meanwhile, told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a 55-minute conversation that an additional $ 500 million in immediate aid to Ukraine was on the way. It is the latest explosion in US aid as the Russian invasion continues. Asked about the latest information, Foreign Minister Antony Blinken suggested that there is a dynamic in the Kremlin where advisers are reluctant to speak to Putin honestly. “One of the Achilles heel of authoritarianism is that there are no people in these systems who tell the truth to the authorities or have the ability to tell the truth to the authorities, and I think that is what we see in Russia,” Blinken said. journalists during a stop in Algeria on Wednesday. The unnamed official did not elaborate on the details of how the US Secret Service made its decision. The intelligence community concluded that Putin was unaware that his army was using him and was losing troops in Ukraine. They also found that he was not fully aware of the extent to which the Russian economy was affected by the economic sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies. The findings show a “clear collapse in the flow of accurate information” to Putin and show that Putin’s top advisers are “afraid to tell him the truth,” the official said. Biden briefed Zelensky on the latest batch of aid during a call in which leaders also discussed security assistance already delivered to Ukraine and the impact of weapons on the war, according to the White House. Zelesnkyy has pressed the Biden government and other Western allies to provide Ukraine with military aircraft, something the United States and other NATO nations have so far been reluctant to accept over concerns that it could lead to Russia extending the war beyond from the border of Ukraine. Prior to Wednesday’s announcement of $ 500 million in aid, the Biden government had sent about $ 2 billion in humanitarian aid and security assistance to Ukraine since the start of the war last month. Congress approved $ 13.6 billion that Congress approved earlier this month as part of a broader spending bill. Bedingfield said the latest round of financial assistance could be used by the Ukrainian government “to boost its economy and pay for budget expenditures”, including government salaries and maintenance services. According to the Ukrainian presidential website, Zelensky told Biden: “We need peace and it will only be achieved when we have a strong position on the battlefield. “Our morale is stable, there is a lot of determination, but we need your immediate support.” Zelensky said in a Twitter post that he also spoke to Biden about new sanctions against Russia. Bedingfield said the government is considering options to extend and deepen current sanctions. The new information came after the White House on Tuesday expressed skepticism about Russia’s public announcement that it would withdraw its operations near Kyiv in a bid to boost confidence in ongoing talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials in Turkey. Russian forces pounded areas around the Ukrainian capital and another city overnight, regional leaders said Wednesday. The Pentagon said Wednesday that in the past 24 hours it had seen some Russian troops in areas around Kyiv moving north toward or toward Belarus. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told CNN and Fox Business in an interview that the United States does not see this as a withdrawal but as an attempt by Russia to resupply, reposition and then reposition troops. Putin has long been considered an outsider outside Russia and surrounded by officials who do not always tell him the truth. U.S. officials have said they believe the limited flow of information – possibly exacerbated by Putin’s heightened isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic – could give the Russian president unrealistic views on how quickly he could overtake Ukraine. . Before the war, the Biden administration launched an unprecedented effort to publicize what it believed were Putin’s invasion plans, based on intelligence findings. As Russia continued to invade, the White House was widely credited with drawing attention to Ukraine and pushing initially reluctant allies to support harsh sanctions that have hit the Russian economy hard. But by underscoring the limits of intelligence, the United States has also underestimated Ukraine’s willingness to fight before the invasion, said Lt. Gen. Scott Brier, head of the Defense Intelligence Service, in a recent statement to Congress. – AP authors Matthew Lee in Algiers and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to the report.
