"It seems obvious Putin was sold a bill of goods by his intelligence services," Michael Weiss, news director at New Lines magazine and director of special investigations at the Free Russia Foundation, told Insider.
Instead of quickly conquering Ukraine, the Russian military made strategic mistakes - failing to take out the country's air defenses deploying tens of thousands of troops without adequate supply lines - and were met by a steadfast Ukrainian resistance that was underestimated by Washington and Moscow alike.įrustrated, Russian forces have resorted to tactics seen in Syria and Chechnya before: all-out attacks on civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and apartment buildings, in an apparent effort to demoralize a population that has not greeted them as liberators or surrendered. Within minutes of his televised war declaration, explosions were reported across Ukraine - including in the capital city, Kyiv, home to nearly 3 million people.ĬIA Director Bill Burns told lawmakers last week that Putin's strategy for the war was centered on "seizing Kyiv within the first two days of the campaign." US intelligence likewise assessed that the city could fall soon after the invasion. When Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion on February 24, he expected a swift and decisive victory, seeming to believe his own propaganda about the strength of his armed forces and people's willigness to fight for a country, Ukraine, that he has defined as an integral part of his own.
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