The chief of Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) on Wednesday (March 30) claimed that some demoralised Russian soldiers in Ukraine have been disobeying orders and accidentally shot down one of their own aircraft.
The spy agency GCHQ chief Jeremy Fleming said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “massively misjudged” the capabilities of Russia’s once-mighty armed forces.
Vladimir Putin’s advisers are “afraid to tell him the truth” about the war in Ukraine, according to Sir Jeremy Fleming, who will say in a speech on Thursday that the Russian president made a “strategic miscalculation” in deciding to invade.
“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,” the spy chief will say in a rare public address during a visit to Australia.
“And even though we believe Putin’s advisers are afraid to tell him the truth, what’s going on and the extent of these misjudgments must be crystal clear to the regime.
“It all adds up to the strategic miscalculation that western leaders warned Putin it would be. It’s become his personal war, with the cost being paid by innocent people in Ukraine and, increasingly, by ordinary Russians too.”
His remarks, released in advance, echoed US intelligence issued by the White House the previous day indicating Putin was being “misinformed” by his advisers about the progress of the Russian operation.
(With inputs from agencies)
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