Vladimir Putin being 'lied to by scared advisers' over Ukraine invasion

Vladimir Putin is being misled by his own military advisers who are too scared to tell him the reality of how poorly the Ukraine war is going, Western intelligence reports have said.

It has been over a month since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. Despite reports the Russian president had expected to take over within days, his campaign has been marred by under-prepared troops and stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces.

Western sanctions have also began to bite at the lives of ordinary Russians, with hundreds of international companies pulling out of the country, rising goods prices, and a crashing economy that has seen inflation hit 15.66%.

The rouble has also fallen to an all-time low, boosting demand for a wide range of goods, from food staples to cars, on expectations that their prices will rise even higher.

On Wednesday, the White House claimed Putin is being misled by his own military chiefs and misinformed by advisers.

“We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers 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,” it said.

Watch: British spy chief says Vladimir Putin’s advisers 'scared to tell him the truth' that he has misjudged attack on Ukraine

The comments echoed similar ones made by the head of Britain’s GCHQ spy agency, Sir Jeremy Fleming, who said Putin had “massively misjudged the situation”, and that Russian soldiers have been sabotaging their own equipment, refusing to carry out orders, and even accidentally shooting down their own aircraft.

He said: “It’s clear he misjudged the resistance of the Ukrainian people.

“He underestimated the strength of the coalition his actions would galvanise. He under-played the economic consequences of the sanctions regime. He overestimated the abilities of his military to secure a rapid victory.

“We’ve seen Russian soldiers – short of weapons and morale – refusing to carry out orders, sabotaging their own equipment and even accidentally shooting down their own aircraft.

“And even though we believe Putin’s advisers are afraid to tell him the truth, what’s going on and the extent of these misjudgements must be crystal clear to the regime.”

He added: “It’s become his personal war, with the cost being paid by innocent people in Ukraine and increasingly, by ordinary Russians too.”

Speaking at the Australian National University in Canberra, Sir Jeremy said Western allies were making “deeply secret intelligence” public to get ahead of Putin’s information war, while also tackling cyber threats.

While troops have so far failed to take control of any major cities, Moscow's forces have wreaked havoc and devastation on the country.

Towns and cities have been reduced to rubble, and four million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their home country, seeking shelter as refugees.

In total, a quarter of Ukrainians have now left their homes, with around 6.5 million displaced people within the country's borders.

Cities including Kharkiv and Mariupol have suffered heavy bombardment, and small towns and villages near the capital of Kyiv have born much of the brunt of fighting in recent weeks.

On Wednesday the mayor of Irpin, a suburb just outside of Kyiv, said at least 200 people were killed and over half the town has been destroyed. The area was reclaimed by Ukrainian forces earlier this week, but is still coming under heavy fire from Russian weapons.

Addressing the Danish parliament on Tuesday, Zelenskyy said some 100,000 people were still trapped in Mariupol, which is encircled by Russian forces and under unceasing bombardment.

Ukrainian authorities have claimed more than 17,000 Russian soldiers have died in the offensive, figures which have yet to be independently verified.

Last week a Nato source put the numbers of Russian soldiers killed at between 7,000 and 15,000

British military intelligence said on Thursday that "Russian forces have almost certainly suffered thousands of casualties during their invasion of Ukraine".

Last week, a Nato source claimed up to 15,000 troops could have died with casualty numbers as high as 40,000.